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PESTALOZZI I 

1 
1 
1 



WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

Le(;ons pratiques de langue allemande. 3 vols. Pans, 1889-1893. 

Vocabulaire etymologique allemand-fran<;ais et fran(^ais-aUemand. 
1 vol. Paris, 1893. 

La Reforme de Veducation en Allemagne au dix-huitieme siecle. 
{Gained a prize from the French Academy.) 1 vol., 597 pp. 
Paris, 1890. 

La Chalotais als Vorkdmpfer der loeltlichen Schule. Leipzig, 1891. 

Herb art : Principals oeuvres pedagogiques (translation). 1vol., 
4:00 pp. Paris and Lille, 1893. 

Geschichte der Philanthropinismus. 1 vol., 494 pp. Leipzig, 1896. 

Die Reform der Universitdten in FranTcreich. Leipzig, 1896. 

L' Enseignement secondaire en Allemagne, d'apres les documents 
officiels. 1 vol., xxvii and 129 pp. Paris, 1900. 

De V enseignement des langues vivantes : essai d' orientation pMa- 
gogique has€ sur Vhistoire et Vexperience. Paris, 1901. 



Edited by NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER 

PESTALOZZI 



THE FOUNDATION OF THE MODERN 
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 



BY 

3 3-^13 "■ » , 



®> >,« 



A. PINLOCHE 

Sometime Professor at the University of Lille 

Professor in the Lycee Charlemagne and the JEcole 

Poly technique, Paris 



Priifet alles, behaltet das Gute und wenn etwas Besseres 
in euch selber gereift, so setzet es zu dem, was ich auch in 
diesen Bogen in Walirheit und Liebe zu geben versuchte, 
in Wahrlieit und Liebe binzu. 

(Weigh all, keep what is good, and if something better 
ripen in you, add it in truth and love to what I have tried 
to give in truth and love in these sheets.) 

Pestalozzi, Schwanengesang, Motto. 



NEW YORK 

CHAELES SCRIBNEE'S SONS 

1901 



o ■> J 



THE H8RARY OF 
OONGRESS, 

Two Coeiea ftEceiveo 

i^OV. 9 1901 

OOPVHWHT eNTRY 

CLASS n^ XXc. No. 

COPY a 



.'CqjPYRiGHT, 1901, BY 

CniRtES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
Published November, 1901 



NorhjooH 3Press 

J. S. Cushin? & Co. — Berwick & Smith 
Norwood M»8?. U.S.4k. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction ix 

Bibliography xv 

PART I 

CHAPTER 

I. Childhood and Youth of Pestalozzi ... 3 

11. Neiihof (1771-1798) 15 

III. Stanz (1798-1799) 30 

IV. Burgdorf and Miinchenbuchsee (1799-1805) . 37 
V. Yverdon (1805-1825) 64 

VI. Neuhof again (1825-1827) 114 

PART II 

BOOK I 

I. Education from the Social Point of View . . 121 

11. Aim and Theory of Education .... 125 

III. On the Education of Lower Classes . . . 140 

IV. Private Education and Public Education . . 146 

BOOK II 

I. Criticism of the Existing Methods . . . 149 
n. J^ature, Aim, and Division of Elementary Edu- 
cation 161 

V 



vi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

III. The Elementary Method 179 

/\jr0 Sense-perception as the Psychological Founda- 
tion of Intellectual Education . . . 197 
V. The Method of Sense-perception, or Elementary 

Method 210 

VI. Moral and Religious Education .... 256 

BOOK III 

I. Other Doctrines . 276 

II. Pestalozzi on his Own Work .... 280 



PART III 

I. Pestalozzi's Influence on Germany, especially in 

Prussia 289 

II. Pestalozzi's Influence in Other Countries . . 301 



Index 303 i 



INTEODUCTION 



INTRODUCTION 

When we consider the importance that is attached 
to popular education in all civilised countries at the 
present time, we experience a certain difficulty in 
remembering that it was not always thus, and only 
a study of history convinces us that this anxiety to 
raise the lower classes intellectually and morally to a 
higher level does not date farther back than a century. 
It is a curious thing that, while France realised the 
political enfranchisement of citizens at the price of the 
most frightful of revolutions, in a neighbouring coun- 
try, Switzerland, which was also to profit largely by 
this revolution, a man of genius, as earnest as he was 
modest, worked almost single-handed at the intellec- 
tual and moral enfranchisement of the lower classes, 
and, completing the work of France, immortalised 
himself by creating, at the price of his repose and 
happiness, what was until then almost unknown, the 
education of the lower classes. This man was 
Pestalozzi. 

We may indeed declare, without fear of exaggera- 
tion, that before Pestalozzi popular education did not 
exist at all. Even in the country where statesmen 
paid the greatest attention to the subject, in Ger- 
many, it was far from existing in reality. Luther had 
certainly proclaimed the need of it, but the elementary, 
school, which he really created, had for a long time 

ix 



X INTRODUCTION 

been a mere class for the teaching of the catechism. 
It would, however, be unjust to omit the mention of 
the earnest endeavours of Francke,^ the founder of 
pietism, and of the philanthropinist Eochow,^ an old 
Prussian officer turned canon, who, touched by the 
misery of the rural population, had realised that 
instruction was the only means of improving their 
lot, and had founded a school at his own expense, 
with which the pastor was to have nothing to do. 
But Francke's schools had retained an essentially 
religious character, and Eochow's attempt, although 
supported by the government of Frederick II, was 
opposed by the clergy, and the reactionary govern- 
ment of Frederick William II did not continue the 
experiment ; consequently it had no other result than 
that of once more attracting the attention of Prussian 

1 It was in 1695 that Francke one day found four thalers and 
sixteen groschen (about three dollars and a half) in the poor- 
box, and determined to found a school for the poor with this 
sum. Later on he founded a training school for teachers, the first 
of the celebrated Francke training schools in Halle, to which sec- 
ondary schools have since been attached. ( Vide Pinloche, La 
E^/oj^me cle l' Education en Allemagne au XVIII^ siecle, p. 4.) 

2 Rochow (1734-1805) published in 1772 his Attempt at a Primer 
for the Children of the Rural Population or for Use in Village 
Schools {Versuch eines Schulbuches fiir Kinder der Landleute, 
Oder zum Gebrauch in Dorfschulen) , in which he demanded free 
education for the people. The same year he became teacher at the 
modest school at Reckahn (the cost of which he paid out of his own 
pocket) , which soon became an object of curiosity and universal 
admiration. He also published besides The Peasants^ Friend {Der 
Bauernfreund, 1773) and the Childre)i^s Friend {Der Kinderfreund, 
1775), a species of reading book for the use of the lower classes, 
which had an immense success ; a treatise entitled The Ameliora- 
tion of the National Character through Elementary Schools { Von 
Verhesserung des Nationalcharakters durch Volksschulen, 1779). 
Vide Pinloche, ibid., pp. 420-432. 



INTRODUCTION xi 

statesmen to the necessity of organising the instruc- 
tion of the people independently of the Church, and of 
demonstrating to them the possibility of such organi- 
sation. 

With these few isolated exceptions, the children of 
the lower classes only learnt at school reading and 
writing (and that very indifferently) and in the Prot- 
estant countries their catechism before confirmation. 
And the pastor generally handed even the duty of 
teaching that over to the clerk. Often again the office 
of teacher was filled by some zealous workman, some 
old soldier, or even some servant out of a place, who 
gathered the children together for an hour or two on 
Sundays to teach them reading and writing as well 
as he could. The trade of schoolmaster had become 
the refuge of all who could not get employment else- 
where. To such educators was the instruction of the 
people abandoned towards the end of the eighteenth 
century. 

As the method used was on a par with the teachers, 
one may easily conceive the result. The rod mostly 
took the place of all pedagogy, and in the most favour- 
able cases the memory was the only faculty exercised. 
Comenius, certainly, had made considerable progress 
as early as the seventeenth century, and had indicated 
to a certain extent the road to follow by pointing out 
what profit could be gained in teaching by observa- 
tion, direct or by the help of pictures of actual objects, 
and by creating the method since called perceptive, or 
teaching by the help of sense-perception. But these 
methods, which were of a purely empirical nature, 
had fallen into oblivion; and Basedow, who went 
back to them later on, at the end of the eighteenth 



xii INTRODUCTION 

century, without however grasping the full extent of 
the educational problem which remained to solve, had 
only applied them to the instruction of the children 
of the middle classes, so that his attempt had had no 
result "outside secondary education. Finally, we know 
that Rousseau himself was of opinion that the poor 
had no need of education, and went so far as to 
declare that he would never trouble himself about 
a puny, sickly child, even if he were to live to be 
eighty. For Pestalozzi was reserved the undying 
fame of having not only restored to credit the pro- 
cesses of the method of sense-perception, already known 
and applied, but, above all, of having realised both the 
social importance of the education of the people and 
the most suitable means of determining its method. 

Are we to believe Pestalozzi when at the time that 
he was publishing his first writings on education he 
tells us that he " had not read a book for thirty years," 
and that he "knew nothing of what Rousseau and 
Basedow had done or desired to do," although ever 
since "half the world had been stirred up in favour 
of the reform of education " ^ ? His relations with 
Iselin sufficiently prove that he could not have been 
completely ignorant of the well-advertised work of 
the philanthropinists, as we have shown elsewhere.^ 
As to Emile, at the time when Pestalozzi lived, it was 
not even necessary to have read it to be affected by 
its influence, which was indeed universal, and made 
itself profoundly felt in all parts of the civilised 
world. He himself aljudes to this influence. But if 
we cannot deny that Pestalozzi profited, even if only 

1 3, 176. 2 pinloche, La Rdforme, etc., p. 533. 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

unconsciously, by the movement of opinion created by 
Eousseau and Basedow, and even in particular by 
some of the pedagogical processes restored to credit 
by the latter, who had not invented them either,^ we 
must nevertheless acknowledge that his originality 
was not less complete and powerful because it was 
above all in himself, and that his ideas as a whole 
actually constitute a new doctrine, as is shown in the 
summary which is the object of this work. 

We cannot justly or fully appreciate the work of a 
man who was at the same time a practical worker as 
well as a theorist on education unless we know his life 
and his writings. After the imposing mass of docu- 
ments patiently collected and published by Mr. Morf,^ 
the very complete introduction, in spite of some errors, 
of Mr. Friedrich Mann in his edition of Selected Works,^ 
and especially the excellent study of Mr. J. Guil- 
laume,* and the most valuable data given in the Pesta- 
lozzi BUittey-,^ by Dr. 0. Hunziker, director of the 
Pestalozzian Museum at Zurich,® not to mention innu- 
merable other works on the subject, there is nothing 
left to be done for the biography of Pestalozzi, unless 
indeed new documents be discovered. It has therefore 
seemed to us sufficient to give the indispensable sum- 
mary taken from reliable sources. But until now there 
has not existed a luminous and complete account of the 

1 See on this subject the complaints of the philanthropinist 
Wolke : Morf, Zur Biographie, etc., Ill, pp. 168 et seq. 

2 Zur Biographie Pestalozzis, 4 Bde., 1865-1889. 

3 Pestalozzis ausgewdhlte Werke, 4 Bde. 

4 Pestalozzi, etude biographique, 1890. 

5 Pestalozzi Blatter, the special organ of the Pestalozzian Mu- 
seum since 1880 {vide biography) . 

6 Founded in 1879 under the name of Pestalozzi StUhchen. 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

doctrines of the great pedagogue, which are scattered 
through the medley of eighteen volumes/ and ex- 
pressed in a form that is far from being literary, in 
a language often obscure and even incorrect, and con- 
sequently almost inaccessible to the majority of read- 
ers. That is especially the work we have undertaken, 
trying to bring some order and light into the chaos, 
and confining the author to a fixed plan, which is, we 
acknowledge, quite incompatible with his character. 
We know that we lay ourselves open to some reproach 
in proceeding thus. But if we admit the impossi- 
bility and also the uselessness of reproducing in ex- 
tenso such a vast mass of writings, many of which, 
even if we confine ourselves strictly to pedagogical 
works, have lost their interest for us, we must also 
acknowledge that no other means remained of put- 
ting the essential points of this original and powerful 
pedagogy in the light they deserve, without which it is 
impossible to conceive and to understand the whole of 
modern education. 

1 Pestalozzis sammtUche Werke, etc., edited by Seyffarth, 1869- 
1873. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

We cannot attempt to give a complete list of the numerous 
editions and translations of the different works of Pestalozzi 
and of the countless publications having reference to the great 
pedagogue. The most important of these are to be found in 
Raumer's History of Pedagogy (Geschichte der Padagogik), 
Vol. II, p. 489 ; in J. Guillaume's biographical study (pp. 437 
et seq.), quoted hereafter; and in Israel's Versuch einer Zu- 
sammenstellung der Schriften von und uber Pestalozzi, Zscho- 
pau, 1894. 

I. WORKS BY PESTALOZZI 

Complete Woi^ks : 

Pestalozzis sammtliche Schriften, 15 vols. Cotta. Stutt- 
gart und Tubingen, 1819-1826. 

Pestalozzis sammtliche Werke, 18 vols., ed. by Seyffarth. 
Brandenburg, 1869-1873. 

Pestalozzis sammtliche Werke, ed. by Seyffarth. Liegnitz, 
1899-1901 (enlarged edition ; the most complete in ex- 
istence). 

Selections from Pestalozzi'' s Works: 

Pestalozzis ausgewahlte Werke, ed. by Fr. Mann, 4 vols. 
(Bibliothek padagogischer Klassiker, H. Beyer. Langen- 
salza), 1871, and later on: How Gertrude teaches her 
Children, translated by Lucy E. Holland and Frances C. 
Turner, and edited by E. Cooke. London, 1894. 

XV 



xvi BIBLIOGRAPHY 

11. THE LATEST AND MOST IMPOETANT 
WORKS ON PESTALOZZI 

Karl von Raumer, Geschichte der Padagogik (Vol. II, chapter 
on Pestaiozzi). Stuttgart, 1843-1847. 

Henry Barnard, Life, Educational Principles, and Methods of 
John Henry Pestaiozzi (contains a translation of Raumer's 
article and of several of Pestaiozzi' s works, and a short 
account of Pestaiozzi and his co-workers). New York, 1859. 

Morikofer, Die schweizerische Literatur des 18. Jahrhunderts 
(chapter on Pestaiozzi). Leipzig, 1861. 

H. Morf, Zur Biographic Pestalozzis, 4 vols. Winterthur, 1868- 
1889. 

O. Hunziker, Geschichte der schweizerischen Volksschule, 3 vols. 
Zurich, 1881-1882, id. Allgemeine deutsche Biographie 
(article on Pestaiozzi) and several notices. 

F. H^risson, Pestaiozzi ^16ve de J. J. Rousseau. Paris, 1886. 

J. Guillaume, Pestaiozzi, 6tude biographique. Paris, 1890. 

B. Gebhardt, Die Einfiihrung der Pestalozzischen Methods in 
Preussen. Berlin, 1896. 



Part I 
PESTALOZZrS LIFE 



CHAPTER I 

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF PESTALOZZI 

(1746-1771) 

Pestalozzi's earliest youth. — His first education. — His uni- 
versity studies. — Influence of Rousseau's writings. — The 
Helvetian Society. — Pestalozzi's ideas on social questions. 
— He turns farmer. — His marriage. — Failure of his attempt 
at farming. 

Heinrich Pestalozzi was born at Ztiricli on the 
12thL of January, 1746. He belonged to a family of 
Italian Protestant refugees which had settled in that 
town toward the middle of the sixteenth century. His 
father, Johann Baptist Pestalozzi, who was twenty- 
eight years old when Heinrich was born, had a certain 
reputation as surgeon and as oculist. His mother, 
Susanne Hotz, of Richtersweil, was the niece of the 
General Hotz who perished in 1799 at the battle of 
Schannis. Johann Baptist Pestalozzi died in 1751, 
leaving Susanne with three children, the survivors of 
seven, Heinrich, then scarcely five years old, his 
brother, aged six, who later on went to sea, never to 
return, and a younger sister who, in 1777, married 
Gross, a merchant of Leipzig. 

In order to meet the needs of the family with her 
more than modest resources, Pestalozzi's mother had 
to practise the most rigid economy and even to endure 
privations. " My mother," he tells us, " sacrificed 

3 



4 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

herself with the most utter self-devotion to the bring- 
ing up of her three children, depriving herself of 
everything which at her age and in her surroundings 
could have had attractions for her." She was wonder- 
fully helped in this by a servant for whom Pestalozzi 
ever cherished a grateful remembrance, the faithful 
Babeli, who had promised the dying father not to 
abandon those whom he left behind. 

"Difficult as the conscientious fulfilment of this 
promise might be, the thought never came into her 
mind, that she could ever cease, or want to cease, to 
keep it. The position of my widowed mother de- 
manded the utmost economy, but the trouble our Babeli 
took to perform impossibilities in this respect is almost 
incredible. In order to buy a basket of vegetables or 
fruit a few kreuzers cheaper, she would go back three 
or four times to the market and watch for the moment 
when the market-women wanted to go home. ... If 
we children only wanted to set foot in the street, or go 
somewhere where we had no business, Babeli stopped 
us with the words : ' What do you want to go and ruin 
your clothes and your shoes all for nothing for ? Look 
how your mother deprives herself of everything in 
order to bring you up properly ; how she goes nowhere 
for weeks and months, and saves every kreuzer she 
possibly can for your education.' . . . My brother 
and sister and I always had very grand Sunday clothes ; 
but we were only permitted to wear them a short time, 
and we had to change as soon as we came home, so 
that they might last a long time as Sunday clothes." 

Pestalozzi attributes to this exclusively maternal 
bringing up, firstly, his exaggerated sensibility, and 
secondly, that lack of manly qualities which a paternal 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF PESTALOZZI 5 

guidance is alone capable of developing. Weak and 
delicate from his birth, never having, as he says, 
" come out from behind the stove," he remained the 
most awkward and clumsy child of his age ; he was the 
laughing-stock of his fellows, and, what is more impor- 
tant, he gained no knowledge of life or of men. 

"My character as a child was determined by my 
feelings ; I was carried away completely by the impres- 
sions of the moment; I acted hastily and without reflec- 
tion. I only saw life in the narrow confines of my 
mother's sitting room, and in the no less narrow tram- 
mels of my school life ; real life was almost as strange 
to me as if I did not dwell in the world in which I 
lived. I thought everybody was at least as good- 
natured and confiding as I was myself. Consequently, 
I was as a matter of course, from my youth up, the 
victim of every one who wanted to make game of me. 
It was not in my nature to think evil of any one, until 
I actually saw the evil done or suffered from it myself." 
The schoolmaster, too, declared that "one would never 
get anything out of that child," and his schoolfellows 
made fun of him on account of his unpleasing coun- 
tenance and his extraordinary untidiness and dirtiness. 

Pestalozzi's grandfather was pastor at Hongg, in the 
canton of Zurich, and took a great interest in the 
village school there. He superintended the teaching 
of the children, visited their families, and assumed, in 
short, the functions of educator of the people whose 
spiritual direction was confided to his care. "His 
school, however defective it might be in point of 
method, was in living connection with the moral life 
and the home education of the people, and this com- 
bined education cultivated effectively and energetically 



6 PESTALOZZPS LIFE 

the practice of habits of attention, obedience, industry, 
and effort, in short, laid the essential foundations of 
education."^ Young Pestalozzi, who often went to 
Hongg, had before him, then, at an early age, the 
model of a good man, who, although he followed the 
errors of the old systems of education, nevertheless 
attached the greatest importance to the education of 
the lower classes ; and there is no doubt that this 
example, joined to the sight of the misery of the rural 
population, which he there had the opportunity of see- 
ing closely, must have struck him and influenced him 
in the choice of a vocation. 

Pestalozzi was first sent to the elementary school, 
and although Zurich then possessed an educational 
organisation superior to that of other Swiss and even 
German towns, he retained an impression of his school 
life, which we can easily picture to ourselves, if we 
remember what was then the condition of the educa- 
tion of the people. From the elementary school he 
passed to the preparatory school .and then to the 
Zurich Latin school (collegium humanitatis), and finally 
to the Carolinum, also called collegiunn publicum^ a kind 
of higher public school, where among his teachers were 
two men, celebrated in the history of German litera- 
ture, Bodmer and Breitinger, who were to have the 
greatest influence on him. 

We may easily believe him when he tells us that 
the instruction given in this establishment, excellent 
as it was as regards its intrinsic value, contributed 
nothing toward developing his practical sense. But 
is he right when he makes this same instruction 
responsible for the evils which he afterward had to 

1 Schwanengesang . § IGO. 

// 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF PESTALOZZI 7 

endure ? He recognises himself, that he did not al- 
ways profit by it as much as might have been desir- 
able. "Although I was one of the best pupils, I 
nevertheless, with an incomprehensible thoughtless- 
ness, made mistakes, of which not one of the worst 
was guilty. While, as a rule, the essence of the sub- 
jects taught appealed strongly to my interest, the 
form in which they were presented left me mostly in- 
different and without ideas. Although I was behind 
my schoolfellows in some parts of certain subjects, in 
other parts I excelled them to an unusual degree." ^ 

The professors of the Carolinum were eminently 
men of high culture, but they were not sufficiently in 
touch with the necessities of practical life. " ^ Free- 
dom, independence, beneficence, self-sacrifice, and 
patriotism,' was the motto of our public education. 
But the means of attaining all this which was espe- 
cially recommended to us, intellectual preeminence, 
was left without a sufficient and thorough develop- 
ment of those practical qualities which essentially 
lead to the desired end. They taught us to dreamily 
seek for independence in the verbal recognition of 
truth, without making us feel keenly the need of what 
would have been essentially necessary, if we were 
to attain both inward and outward independence, do- 
mestic and civic." This idealism went so far " that we 
boys imagined we could prepare ourselves thoroughly 
for the petty civic life in one of the Swiss cantons, 
by a superficial school knowledge of the great Greek 
and Koman civic life." ^ In everything men had got 

1 Schivanengesang, § 163. 

2 In an article entitled Agis, which appeared in the Lindauer 
Nachrichten, Pestalozzi depicts a king of this name reforming the 



8 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

farther and farther away from nature. All the books 
of the time, however much good they might contain, 
were the products of an utter artificialness, and no 
longer had that good sense, that simplicity, that natu- 
ral force, characteristic of the pristine national spirit, 
which was exactly what the youth contemporary with 
Pestalozzi wished to reconstitute. The appearance of 
Emile came just at the right moment to rouse these 
ideal aspirations. " As soon as Emile appeared, my 
visionary nature, already unpractical to the highest 
degree, was enthusiastically taken possession of by 
this likewise most unpractical book of dreams." Like 
so many others, Pestalozzi thought he had found in 
Eousseau's doctrines the "universal panacea" which 
was to give a new life to education, and consequently 
to the human race. The Contrat Social also made a 
deep impression on him, with the result that he gave 
up the ecclesiastical career to which, with the major- 
ity of the pupils of the Carolinum, he had intended to 
devote himself. The non-success of his first sermon 
also contributed to confirm this decision, and to make 
him resolve to enter the legal career, which seemed to 
him more likely to give him the means of attaining, 
sooner or later, an active influence over his fellow- 
citizens and his country. But he was dissuaded from 
this project by the friend on whose counsels he most 
relied, Bluntschli. Bluntschli, at that time very ill and 
hopeless of recovery, on his death-bed adjured him not 
to embrace a career which his good nature and confid- 
ing disposition made most dangerous for him. " Seek 
a calm and peaceful career," he said, " and never begin 

manners of the Lacedfemonians according to the ideas of Rousseau. 
(Ed. Seyffarth, vol. 8.) 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF PESTALOZZI 9 

any important undertaking, the failure of which might 
in any way be dangerous to you, without having a man 
at your side who, with reliable fidelity, will help you 
with his cool, dispassionate knowledge of men and 
of business." ^ 

Pestalozzi had joined the Helvetiayi Society, founded 
by Bodmer in order to propagate liberal ideas among 
young men. The weekly meetings of this society were 
devoted chiefly to debates, in which Rousseau's politi- 
cal ideas had the chief share. These meetings natu- 
rally came to be regarded with suspicion by the 
authorities, for the "patriots," as they called them- 
selves, did not hesitate to denounce the abuses of 
power of which many officials had been guilty. 

In a journal founded by the society in 1765, for the 
discussion of moral questions, Der Erinnerer, to which 
Pestalozzi, then hardly twenty years of age, contrib- 
uted, we find the first traces of his vocation for an 
educational career. " A young man," he says, " who 
plays such a small part in his country as I do, has no 
right to criticise, or to suggest improvements ; people 
tell me so nearly every day of my life. But surely I 
may be permitted to express my wishes ? . . ." And 
among these wishes the chief is, "that no eminent 
man may deem it beneath him to work with untiring 
courage for the general good, that no one may look 
down with disdain on his fellow-creatures of an in- 
ferior rank, if they are among the most faithful and 
industrious of men." Later on he expresses the 
wish " that some one might publish a little collection 
of the principles of education, excellent and simple, 
so that the average citizen, or the average country- 
1 Schioanengesang , § 163. 



10 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

man, might understand them, and that some generous 
2)ersons might distribute this little book free of charge, 
or for the sum of a schilling (a half-penny), that all 
the clergy, both in the towns and in the country, might 
distribute and recommend it, and finally that all the 
parents who read it might conform to these wise 
rules of Christian education. . . ." But he adds, 
" it is a good deal to wish at a time ! " 

The relations of Pestalozzi with the Helvetian So- 
ciety had most unpleasant consequences for him. One 
member of the society, Miiller, a young theologian, 
had fled, to escape the actions which the Mayor of 
Zurich had decided to take against him on account 
of the publication of a political article. Pestalozzi 
was accused of having advised him to flee, and was 
arrested together with several others. As his guilt 
was not actually proved, he was only condemned to 
pay the costs of the action. His hatred of tyranny 
was naturally only increased by this, and from that 
moment he was considered as a demagogue by the 
authorities. As to the journal of society, they took 
the opportunity of suppressing it. 

Deeply affected by the death of his friend Blunt- 
schli, — indeed he himself was made seriously ill by his 
grief, — Pestalozzi suddenly renounced literature, or, as 
he says, bookish things (BUchersachen), and resolved to 
devote himself to agriculture. Love of nature was 
then the order of the day, and Rousseau, not content 
with converting his contemporaries by his writings, 
was exerting himself, as occasion offered, to carry 
them away by his eloquence. Bodmer tells us that 
one day, on his way to Geneva, the author of Emile 
received the visit of one of the Swiss "patriots," 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF PESTALOZZI 11 

Schulthess, and praised to him the condition of the 
tiller of the soil as the happiest of all. " In the coun- 
try of slavery," he said, " one should be an artisan ; in 
the country of liberty, one should become a farmer. 
A farmer can lead a peaceful life at home and culti- 
vate the tender sentiments of the heart." And he 
told him how "there was in Italy an association of 
peasants whose statutes contained as their first article 
that not one of them should be able to read." ^ Such 
inducements were not even necessary to convince 
young men already influenced by the writings of 
physiocrats (notably by the Peasant Philosopher of 
Hirzel),^ and to bring this passion for nature to 
the point of manifesting itself in action. "It is 
astonishing," writes Bodmer, "how several of our 
best students have taken it into their heads to become 
farmers. They have already begun their apprentice- 
ship by helping peasants reap, in order to see if they 
could endure heat, perspiration, rain. . . ." 

Not less enthusiastic, Pestalozzi went, on Lavater's 
recommendation, to study agriculture under Tschiffeli, 
a rural proprietor of Kirchberg, in the Bernese Em- 
menthal. Tschiffeli had a most prosperous farm, the 
success of which had gained for him a great reputa- 
tion. He arrived there in the course of the autumn 
of 1767, and was delighted from the very beginning. 
" Here I am," he writes at once, " and my happiness 
exceeds all expectation. Tschiffeli is the best of 
fathers, the greatest of farmers. I am going to learn 
farming in all its branches, and shall certainly become 
independent of the whole world." And a little later : 

1 Letter to Sulzer, 1765. (Morf, vol. 1, p. 84.) 

2 Die Wirtschaft eines philosophtschen Bauern, 1761. 



12 PESTALOZZrS LIFE 

" I have now a lucrative career. Tschiffeli is really 
growing rich with his farm. I am learning the busi- 
ness thoroughly, and am sure I shall be able to set up 
for myself." 

These letters, so full of promise, were written to the 
sister of one of his friends, Anna Schulthess, the 
daughter of a respected Zurich merchant. He had 
made her acquaintance and come to honour her noble 
sentiments on the occasion of the death of Bluntschli, 
who was a great friend of hers. From this time Pes- 
talozzi had carried on a regular correspondence with 
her ; and although she was seven years older than he 
was, he resolved to unite his existence to hers. She 
was no less desirous of this, for Pestalozzi's exterior, 
which was rather unpleasant than otherwise, had not 
prevented her from appreciating the greatness of his 
soul. " Be sure," she wrote, " that you would owe 
little gratitude to Nature, if she had not given you 
your great black eyes, through which shine the good- 
ness of your heart, the greatness of your mind, and the 
depth of your love." ^ 

However, Anna's parents were far from sharing her 
enthusiasm, for young Pestalozzi's agricultural proj- 
ects inspired them with but small confidence, and they 
had not the smallest intention of giving him their 
daughter on the strength of such shadowy hopes for 
the future. Nevertheless, the young farmer filled his 
letters to overflowing with details of the organisation 
he was planning and the profits which he hoped to 
make. He took the greatest pains to prove to his 
future helpmate that this farm would bring in suffi- 
cient " to support a family willing to live in a humble 

1 Morf, vol. 1, p. 101. 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF PESTALOZZI 13 

way in the country." He was even convinced, as was 
Tschiffeli his master, that he had found the means, 
" not only of assuring the existence of his family, but 
also of attaining a happy lot by his own exertions." 
And he added, " If only my plan please you, if only it 
can reassure you and your worthy parents, how happy 
I should then be ! " ^ After having spent a year at 
Kirchberg, he returned to Zurich, and bought, with 
what remained to him of his paternal inheritance, a 
piece of uncultivated land in the plain of Birrfeld, in 
the canton of Argovie, where he intended raising mad- 
der and vegetables on a large scale. He had suc- 
ceeded in interesting the father of one of his friends, 
banker Schulthess, in his enterprise, and induced him 
to put fifteen hundred florins into the concern. Then, 
until he should be able to build a house on his land, 
he took up his abode at Miilingen, a little village on 
the Reuss, three-quarters of an hour's walk from his 
farm. 

Still Anna's parents, especially her mother, contin- 
ued to turn a deaf ear to his projects. Even the in- 
tervention of such friends as Lavater, Fiissli, Hotz, 
and Heidegger, the burgomaster of Zurich, failed to 
prevail on them to give their consent. All these could 
obtain was, that the parents should not oppose the 
union of the young people by force. They let their 
daughter go without any other dowry than her mar- 
riage outfit, her harpsichord, and her money box. 
"You will have to content yourself with bread and 
water," said her mother to her, as she left. The mar- 
riage took place on the 30th of September, 1769, in 
the church at Gebistorf, only a few friends being 

1 Morf, vol. 1, p. 105. 



14 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

present. Pestalozzi was twenty-three years of age, 
his wife thirty. 

The displeasure of the parents was luckily not of 
long duration, for, three months after the marriage, 
they received the visit of the young couple " most 
amiably,'^ and the mother even returned it shortly 
after. But it was not long before their fears as to 
Pestalozzi's enterprise were justified. On the 25th of 
April, 1769, the banker Schulthess went to Mtilingen 
with his two sons to see how the affair was getting 
on. The result of his visit was the cancelling of the 
deed of partnership, of which he sent him notice On 
the 17th of May, " because," he said, " he considered 
the enterprise a failure." Pestalozzi and his wife were 
overwhelmed. Pestalozzi went to Zurich and, thanks 
to the intervention of some friends, he succeeded in 
obtaining a delay from his partner, but not in com- 
pletely dispelling his distrust. At last, after weary 
waiting, in October, a new arrangement was concluded 
between the two partners, and peace and some hope 
thereby restored to the young couple, who were rejoic- 
ing at the birth of a son. 



CHAPTER II 

NEUHOF (1771-1798) 

I. The home for poor children (1771-1780). — The settling 
at Neuhof . — New difficulties. — Foundation of a Home for 
poor children. — Education and industrial occupation. — Pes- 
talozzi's hardships. — Closure of the Home. 

II. Period of literary activity (1780-1798). — Pestalozzi's 
first writings. — Leonard and Gertrude. — Importance of this 
work in making Pestalozzi known to the public. — He is 
made a citizen of France. — Relations with Nicolovius, Klop- 
stock, Wieland, Goethe, Herder, and Jacobi. — Fichte's visit. 



In the spring of 1771 Pestalozzi established himself 
and his family in his new house, which he called 
Neuhof. The house was only built as far as the first 
story, and was never completed.^ The cost of building 
had necessarily diminished the capital intended to be 
used in the working of the farm, which, moreover, 
succeeded less than ever. Schulthess, the banker, 
sent two competent men ^ to inspect the condition of 
the enterprise on the spot and report to him. Although 
both of them were friends of Pestalozzi, they could not 
do otherwise than recognise his want of foresight and 

1 This building was destroyed by fire in 1858 and the space 
between the four walls was occupied by a mill worked by steam, 
to which was added a saw-mill. Beside it is the pretty country 
house begun by Pestalozzi, in which he wished to found his Home. 

2 Mais and Schinz. 

15 



16 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

his incapacity, to which the very choice of the ground 
bore witness. He himself confessed later on, in speak- 
ing of this visit, "that the greater part of the land, 
which had hardly been ploughed at all for many years, 
was almost like the soil of a stone-quarry, without a 
trace of mould, and even on the ploughed land, after 
a few days' rain, there was nothing to be seen but a 
number of little white limestones, which covered the 
ground. They were astonished at the imprudence of 
my purchase, and still more at the expensive and 
unsuitable plan of the dwelling house which I had 
begun, and certainly as far as that was concerned they 
were perfectly right." ^ On their report Schulthess 
withdrew definitely from the concern, with a loss of 
five thousand florins. 

Far from being cast down, Pestalozzi resolved to 
continue with his own unaided resources. At first he 
tried to improve his land by the use of marl. Unfortu- 
nately he had none of the qualities necessary to an 
undertaking of this kind. " A man who contemplates 
and measures the stars," writes his friend Schinz, 
" who gives himself up to the most profound specula- 
tion, who has the best and finest feelings, but who has 
not a mind for any of the details of human life, or for 
domestic necessities, who, in his thoughts at the stars, 
stumbles into a quagmire at his feet, who can neither 
talk to nor act with any of his fellow-creatures without 
offending them by his unpleasant exterior and his un- 
couth, disorderly ways — how could such a man ever 
hope to be able to get on in actual life ? The madder 
plantation did not succeed at all ; Tschiffeli gained 
nothing by it, and Pestalozzi, his pupil, lost a great 

1 Schioanengescmg, § 164. 



NEUHOF 17 

deal. He could not keep accounts, because he did not 
choose to submit to the minute details of bookkeeping, 
and only troubled himself as to the general result." 
This witness is confirmed by Morikofer, who wrote on 
the 3d of May, 1773, " Pestalozzi carries a very heavy 
burden ; he has no method in anything." 

Overwhelmed with debts, he made the state of his 
affairs worse by adding a spinning-mill to his farm. 
His brothers-in-law furnished him with part of the 
first materials for this. One of these, Heinrich Schul- 
thess, was soon to see that he had no more of the 
qualities necessary to succeed in an industrial under- 
taking than in agriculture. " He lacks order, skill, 
and patience, and cannot work a step at a time. He 
will have to give up commerce and manufacture, unless 
he is to be a source of torment and shame to himself 
and our family." He himself said later on, " The 
cause of the failure of my undertaking had nothing to 
do with the undertaking itself ; it lay essentially and 
exclusively in me and in my decided incapacity for 
every kind of undertaking, for which essentially prac- 
tical qualities are necessary." ^ At the end of a short 
time Pestalozzi^s debts reached the sum of fifteen thou- 
sand florins, and it was only owing to the generosity of 
his brothers-in-law, who gave up their share of the in- 
heritance, that he escaped complete ruin. Neverthe- 
less his farm still remained incumbered with debts to 
the amount of four thousand florins. 

"The dream of my life, the hopes of a great and 
beneficent sphere of action, of which a peaceful, quiet, 
domestic life should be the centre, had now completely 
vanished."^ All these difficulties did not prevent 

^ Schwanengesang , § 164. 2 Jitid. 



18 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

Pestalozzi from devoting himself to the education of I 

his son Jacob. From the beginning of 1774 he kept | 

a very regular diary, in which we already see in appli- ■ 

cation the essential principles of the great rediscoverer j 

of the method of sense-perception.^ ' 

Pestalozzi then conceived the project of founding, 

with the help of public subscription, a home for : 

poor children. Orphans or foundlings were at that • 

time handed over to peasants, who mostly got as ■ 

much as they could out of the work, without troubling | 

themselves about the education, of the children, and i 

often enough compelled them to beg on the high- ! 

ways. Seized by the idea that "it is exceedingly j 

difficult to give the poor and lower classes a simple i 

education in accordance with nature, where the educa- ■ 

tion of all those who are not poor or in need is unnat- I 

ural and artificial to a high degree," ^ he resolved to i 

gather together poor children, and while making them • 
work in the spinning-mill for their keep, to give them 

an education suitable to their condition, and prepare : 

them for an active and useful life by preserving them ' 

from misery and moral corruption. He considered ■ 

that the true means of helping these unfortunate chil- : 

dren was not to give them alms out of pity or com- i 

miseration, " but to call forth, and put into action, '■ 

the power every human being possesses of satisfying , 

his needs and doing his duty in his state of life."^ : 
Consequently education was the first consideration in 
his plan. 

At a time when philanthropic ideas were so com- ' 

mon, such a design might fail to attract attention. ; 

1 Vide p. 39. 3 Bitte an Menschen/reunde, etc. 

2 Schivanengesany , § 165. ; 



NEUHOF 19 

Thanks to the active help of friends convinced of the 
utility of the scheme, such as pastor Schinz of Zurich, 
Lavater, Ftissli, some rich inhabitants of Basle and of 
Berne, and above all the philanthrope Iselin (the dis- 
ciple of the political economist Quesnay, and Eous- 
seau), at that time registrar at Basle, whose passion 
for the social weal and for popular education made 
him naturally enough a protector of Pestalozzi's, the 
latter not only gained on all sides numerous adhe- 
rents, but also large subscriptions flowed in, and a 
sum of money was offered as a loan without interest. 

The members of his family were less enthusiastic, 
although he pointed out that by this means, too, he 
could improve his position. His brother-in-law, Kas- 
par Schulthess, then pastor at Neufchatel, even con- 
jured him to give up his " ill-digested " plan of bringing 
up poor children, when he had enough to do '' to bring 
up himself and his own children." 

With the subscriptions he had received, Pestalozzi 
could open his house, toward the end of 1774, to 
some fifty poor, abandoned children, some of whom 
he had himself picked up in the streets. The work 
was placed under the supervision of Miiller, the bailiff 
of Marnen. Pestalozzi neglected nothing that could 
develop the faculties of these unfortunate children, 
and tried to give them an intellectual, a moral, and a 
religious education. He had them taught not only 
a handicraft, but also reading, writing, and arithmetic, 
and tried to influence them morally by edifying dis- 
courses. Unfortunately, most of the children were 
already too much tainted with vice to be able to profit 
by this beneficent direction. Some of them even were 
already so much accustomed to beggary and a vaga- 



20 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

bond life, that they could not help detesting before- 
Ijand the kind of culture which Pestalozzi wished to 
give them. " They considered the condition they were 
in with me as a kind of humiliation compared to that 
in which they were before. Every Sunday, my house 
was filled with mothers or relations of such children, 
who found that their condition did not at all come up 
to their expectations." ^ It even happened that they 
were fetched at night " in their Sunday clothes " and 
taken home unknown to their benefactor. 

" Nevertheless," Pestalozzi tells us, " these difficul- 
ties might gradually have been more or less overcome, 
if I had not tried to carry on my experiment on a 
scale quite out of proportion with my capacities. I had 
no knowledge of mankind, of business or of factories. 
My ignorance of all was as great as my need of know- 
ledge. . . ." ^ He made, moreover, the mistake of add- 
ing to his spinning-mill a trade in cotton tissues, which 
did not succeed any better. The establishment was 
soon a failure, and the deficit was such that Pestalozzi 
was unable to meet his engagements. 

In his distress Pestalozzi sent to Iselin, with the 
request to publish in his Ephemerides ^ an " Appeal to 
Philanthropists," * to invite them to support his work. 
In this address he undertook, in case of negligence on 
his part, to return all subscriptions, and promised to 
furnish an annual report on the progress of the under- 
taking. While recognising his faults, by which he 

1 Schwanengesang , § 166. 2 /^jt^, 

8 Ephemeriden der Menschheit (1776-1778, 1780-1782). 

* Bute an Menschenfreunde und Goniier zu giltiger Unterstut- 

zung einer Anstalt, armen Kindern auf einem Landhause Auferzie- 

hung und Arbeit zu geben, 1777. 



KEtJHOF 21 

was the first to suffer, he adjured philanthropists to 
continue to give him their confidence, and to save 
from imminent ruin an undertaking which, in spite 
of its faults, had succeeded and might have happy- 
results. This address was soon after followed by a 
series of letters in which Pestalozzi laid down his 
ideas on the education of the poor.^ After three years' 
experience, he was delighted to note the fact that not 
only had industrial labour in his school not injured 
the physical development of the children, but that 
many of those who had not thriven in idleness, had 
developed wonderfully after having been put to work 
at the mill. He intended besides to combine work 
with physical exercise and strengthening games, and 
accustom the children as far as possible to work on 
the farm, and at gardening. 

Unfortunately he met with great difficulties. The 
children, accustomed to mendicity, found it hard to 
work, and necessitated heavy expenses before they 
could earn money. Pestalozzi had hoped to reim- 
burse himself by keeping them a long time, but 
there again he experienced nothing but disappoint- 
ment, and was deeply hurt by the ingratitude of the 
families. "The severity one is obliged to employ 
against the idleness and the bad behaviour of some of 
the children," says he, " is wrongly interpreted. . . . 
When the mothers or relatives see the children in the 
workshop, they often assume an insulting attitude 
toward me. I do not know what they expect, or de- 
mand, or what they think. ^ My poor child, must you 
work like that all day long ? Would you not rather 
come home ? Have you enough to eat ? Is the food 

1 Ephemeriden, etc., April and September, 1777. 



22 PESTALOZZrS LIFE 

well cooked? Would you not rather come home?' 
Then the child, who did nothing at all as long as he 
lived with his mamma, begins to cry, and his mother, 
seeing he can now earn a little and that he has good 
clothes on, persuades him to come home, and, to justify 
her conduct, speaks ill of the institute." As to the 
morality of the children, it was deplorable ; there was 
no other means of improving it a little than religion. 

Pestalozzi recognised, moreover, that to direct such 
an institute, it Avas necessary to have a good know- 
ledge of industry and commerce. Nevertheless, he does 
not lose courage. He will not even have people con- 
tinue to point out all the difficulties which must be 
inherent in every important scheme for the good of 
humanity. " Even if there were still more than there 
are, and even if the remnant of strength which is left 
in me were less than it is, I should strive to my last 
breath toward this end. Experience has taught me 
how long and weary the road may be. But even if it 
were still longer and still more painful, my soul 
ardently desires to follow it, and I shall devote my 
life to the attainment of this final goal. ... It gives 
me indescribable pleasure to see young children, boys 
and girls, formerly miserable little creatures, grow 
and develop, to see contentment depicted on their 
faces, to teach their hands to work, to raise their souls 
to their Creator, to see the tears of innocence in prayer 
shine in the eyes of beloved children, and to discern 
the glimmering of hope of sentiments and morals 
worthy of the young, in a degraded and abandoned 
race. It is joy and happiness beyond description to 
see human beings, the image of their Almighty Creator, 
grow up in so many forms and with such different 



NEUHOF 23 

gifts, and then perhaps to discover, where' no one 
expected it, in the miserable and abandoned son of 
the poorest artisan, a great spirit, a genius to be 
saved. . . ." 

The promised report on the progress of the institute, 
dated the 18th of September, 1777, appeared in May 
in the Ephemerides} The inmates of the house then 
numbered fifty, thirty-six of whom were children. Pes- 
talozzi reckoned on being able to increase this number 
in the following spring. While still complaining of 
the ingratitude of the relatives, he notes with joy that 
more and more interest is taken in his work, for the 
amount of the subscriptions received during the pre- 
ceding year had reached the sum of sixty louis d'or. 

A second report, drawn up in the spring of 1778 and 
published in June,^ gives us interesting details of the 
interior organisation of the institute, which numbered, 
besides a sort of housekeeper, Madlon Spindler, "a 
foreman weaver, two workmen, one workwoman, and 
two spinning-hands, a man whose duty it was, besides 
attending to the winding, to teach the children to 
read and spell, two male and two female servants." 
The profits were not in proportion to the expenses, 
for they all lived in a condition approaching misery. 
"For years," he says, "I lived in the midst of fifty 
little beggars, sharing in my poverty my bread with 
them, living like a beggar myself in order to teach 
beggars to live like men." ' 

Pestalozzi's debts increased continuously. His wife 

1 Bruchstuck aus der Geschichte der niedrigsten Menschheit. 
Anrufung der Menschlichkeit zum Besten derselben. 

2 Zuverldssige Nachricht {Ephemeriden, Juni, 1778). 

3 Wie Gertrud Hire Kinder lehrt, 1 Ausgabe, p. 3. 



24 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

had already put almost all that remained of her money 
into the concern, and was now ill from anxiety. Con- 
sequently, in spite of his appeals to philanthropists, 
in spite of many proofs of sympathy from them, in 
spite of Iselin's devotion and constant efforts on his 
behalf, Pestalozzi was compelled at the beginning of 
1780 to close the doors of his institute, and he was 
only saved from complete ruin by the help of some 
friends and by the touching goodness of his creditors. 

II 

As was to be expected, there was no lack of voices 
in the public and even among Pestalozzi' s friends to 
scoff at his failure. " Poor fellow," they said, " you 
are more incapable than the worst day-labourer of 
helping yourself, and yet you imagine you can help 
the lower classes." ^ Flissli, the bookseller, who was 
^^ almost the only person left with whom he could 
freely discuss his situation and obtain a little friendly 
sympathy," told him that his best friends did not 
scruple to say " that he would end his days in a hos- 
pital, if not in a lunatic asylum." ^ Only one did not 
desert him, Iselin, "his Iselin," he called him, "his 
father, his master, his support, his comfort " ; he gave 
him back his faith in himself, and it was to the influ- 
ence of Iselin and Flissli that Pestalozzi owed the first 
suggestion of writing books for the people. 

Pestalozzi only saw in this new kind of work a means 
of improving his pecuniary situation, for no one had 
less than he the gift of writing. " I had so neglected 

1 Wie Gertrud Hire Kinder lehrt, I, 5. 

2 Schwanengesang, § 166. 



NEUHOF 26 

my mental culture, that I could hardly write a line 
without making mistakes."^ 

He consented to write, as he would have consented 
"to make periwigs, if he could have thereby earnt 
bread for his wife and child.'' 

His two first attempts ^u4. HermiVs Eveniyig,^ pub- 
lished in May, 1780, in the Ephemerides, and a treatise 
on a subject proposed by the Basle Society for the Pro- 
motion, etc., on the Advisability of restricting the Luxury 
of the Citizens in a little State of which the Welfare de- 
pended on Commerce,^ which brought him in the first 
prize of thirty ducats, divided between him and Pro- 
fessor Meister, — passed unnoticed. Pestalozzi then 
tried to write some stories in the style of Marmontel's 
Contes Moraux, which he found one day on his table. 
He wrote five or six, but none of them satisfied him. 
The last, Leonard and Gertrude* was the work to 
which he owes his fame. " This," he tells us, " flowed 
from his pen and developed of itself, without his hav- 
ing the least plan of it in his mind, or even having 
thought of such a thing." ^ The first part of this 
social romance, corrected by Iselin, appeared in 1781 
in Berlin without the author's name, and was followed 
in 1783 by a French translation, likewise published in 
Berlin.^ The three other parts appeared in 1783, 

1 Sehwane7igesang, § 168. 

2 Die Abendstunde eines Einsiedlers, 1780. 

3 Invneweit ist es schicklich in einem kleinen Staate, dessen 
Wohlstand aufder Handelschaft beruht, dent Aufwand der BUrger 
Schranken zu setzen, 1780. 

* Lienhard und Gertrud: ein BuchfUr das Volk. 

5 Schwanengesang, § 168. 

6 Leonard et Gertrude, ou les Moeurs villageoises, telles qu'on les 
retrouve a la ville et a la cour. Histoire morale traduite de 



26 PESTALOZZPS LIFE 

1785, and 1787 respectively. Meanwhile he published 
Christopher and Elsa (1782), a sort of commentary on 
the first part of Leonard and Gertrude, which was 
not a success, and a periodical entitled Ein Schwei- 
zerblatt (1782), in which at Iselin's advice he was to 
discuss " everything small or great which is good for 
domestic use." This ceased to appear at the end of 
a year. Then followed a treatise Ori Legislation and 
Infanticide (1783), on a discussion raised by a philan- 
thropist ; a collection of satirical fables and parables, 
entitled lllustratioyis to my ABC Book or to the First 
Principles of my Philosophy {i.e. Leonard and Gertrude), 
written about the same time, but not published until 
1797.1 

The success of Leonard and Gertrude in Germany 
as well as in Switzerland surpassed all expectation. 
The newspapers and almanacs of the time were full 
of the praises of this book, which contrasted strangely 
with the immoral romances of the time. The author, 
whose name had been revealed to the public by the 
Ephemerides, received welcome encouragement from 
all sides. The okonomische Gesellschaft of Berne 
awarded him not only a sum of thirty ducats,^ but 
also a gold medal worth twenty ducats, which Pesta- 
lozzi was unluckily forced to sell a few weeks after. 
Many important personages sent him their congratu- 
lations ; Count von Zinzendorf , Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer under the Emperor Joseph II, congratulated 

I'allemand: Avec clouze estampes dessinees et gravees par D. 
Chodowiecki, Berlin, 1783. 

1 Figuren zu meinem ABC Buck oder zu den Anfangsgrunden 
meiens Denkens. 

2 See the correction of the error on this topic handed down to us 
by Pestalozzi's biographers, J. Guillaume, Pestalozzi, p. 51. 



NEUHOF 27 

him especially on having dared to draw the attention 
of the nobility and middle classes to the moral and 
material needs of the rural population. " The differ- 
ent classes of society," he wrote, " are really so much 
strangers to one another and so isolated that one 
almost forgets that the lowest feeds the other two. 
Your projects and your attempts for the education of 
the poor, for the reclaiming of waifs and strays, and 
especially all that you claim for the instruction of the 
people, in a word, everything which ought to be the 
object of legal measures, will be of great importance 
to me, and I shall receive with great pleasure any- 
thing you may write to me on the subject."^ This 
correspondence between the Austrian minister and the 
author of Leonard and Gertrude was continued up to 
1790. 

Pestalozzi had another interesting correspondence, 
occasioned by the publication of his book, with the 
Minister of the Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany, 
Count von Hohenwart, who held out hopes to him of 
a post under his government, so that Pestalozzi might 
put his ideas in application. Unfortunately, when in 
1790 Leopold succeeded his brother Joseph as Em- 
peror of the Holy Roman Empire, he did not fulfil 
these promises, and even left a memorial which Pes- 
talozzi sent him unanswered. 

It was during this period that Pestalozzi joined the 
German order of the Illuminated, a species of Free- 
masons, to which order he certainly still belonged in 
1782. It ceased to exist in 1784. The fame of the 
author of Leonard and Gertrude spread even to France. 
The Legislative Assembly by a decree on the 26th of 

1 Letter dated from Vienna, April 2(5, 1784. 



28 PESTALOZZrS LlI^E 

August, 1792, awarded to Pestalozzi, together with 
Washington, Schiller, Klopstock, and others, the title 
of citizen of France, and invited him to assist in the 
work of the French Revolution. At first Pestalozzi 
was inclined to go to Paris, but erelong, frightened 
no doubt at the turn which events were taking, and 
at the revolutionary propaganda which threatened to 
spread from France into other countries, he gave up 
this idea. But he embodied his political opinions in 
a manuscript entitled Yes or No, Opinions expressed 
on the Political Opinions of European Humanity by a 
Free Man (February, 1793), which, however, he did 
not dare to publish.^ 

In 1791 Pestalozzi made at Zurich the acquaintance 
of Nicolovius, who later became Councillor of the 
Prussian government and was charged with the di- 
rection of public instruction. Pestalozzi kept up an 
intimate correspondence with him for some time. In 
the course of the summer of 1792 he visited his sister 
at Leipzig, and there made the acquaintance of Klop- 
stock, Wieland, Goethe, Herder, and Jacobi. Finally, 
in 1793, he received a visit from Fichte at Richters- 
weil, where he had gone to spend some months with 
his uncle, Hotze. Fichte, then settled at Zurich, had 
married a friend of Pestalozzi's wife. The visit 
cemented the friendship of the two men, Fichte hav- 
ing already conceived a great esteem for Pestalozzi, 
whose ideas on popular education he highly appre- 

1 This work was published for the first time in'1782 in Seyffarth's 
edition of the Complete Works, under the title Essay on the Causes 
of the French Revolution, from a copy made by Fran Niederer. 
The original manuscript was not discovered until later. (J. Guil- 
laume, op. cit., p. 104.) 



NEUHOF 29 

ciated, and Fichte promised to do all he could to help 
to put them into execution. The Discourses to the 
German Nation ^ proved that the German philosopher 
did not forget his promise. 

All these testimonials of sympathy did not, how- 
ever, help Pestalozzi out of his miserable situation, 
nor provide him with the sphere of action which he 
so long ceased to have, for the application of his 
ideas. Since the closing of his Home, his farm had 
gone steadily downhill for lack of helpers and capital, 
in spite of the devotion of Elisabeth Naf, the model 
servant who had succeeded in restoring order and 
sometimes even comfort into his wretched abode. She 
was, if we are to believe Nicolovius, Pestalozzi's model 
for Gertrude.^ 

The last article which Pestalozzi published during 
his stay at Neuhof was a philosophic essay, entitled My 
Investigations into the Course of Nature in the Develop- 
ment of the Human Bace,^ already composed in 1793, 
but which did not appear until 1797. No notice was 
taken of this work to which Pestalozzi attached great 
importance ; he was consequently deeply mortified. 

After Iselin's death, in 1782, Pestalozzi had no 
friends who really took much interest in his welfare. 
We must, however, mention Felix Battier, a Basle 
merchant, who took Pestalozzi's son, Jacob, into his 
house to teach him his business. He likewise advised 
Pestalozzi to sell his farm, Neuhof, but Pestalozzi 
refused, for he still dreamed of realising his plans. 

1 Reden an die deutsche Nation, Berlin, 1808, pp. 292 et seq. 

2 J. Guillaume, op. cit., p. 42. 

3 Meine Nachforschungen uber den Gang der Natur in der 
Entwickelung des Menschengeschlechtes, 1797. 



CHAPTER III 

STANZ (1798-1799) 

Pestalozzi's pedagogic vocation. — The support of Stapfer and 
Legrand. — Foundation of the orphanage at Stanz. — Pesta- 
lozzi's teaching. — Success of the work stopped by political 
events. — Pestalozzi's departure. 

In 1798, as an after consequence of the French 
Revolution, Switzerland became the "Helvetian Re- 
public, one and indivisible," and Stapfer, the minister 
of arts and sciences, a distinguished philosopher and 
philologist, resolved to undertake the reform of ele- 
mentary schools, at that time in a lamentable condi- 
tion, especially in rural districts, and also to found 
training colleges for teachers. Pestalozzi thought the 
moment had come for the realisation of his dreams. 
Some friends of his, desiring to help him out of his 
pecuniary difficulties, offered him a political post, but 
he remembered the advice of his friend Bluntschli, 
and declined it, giving as his answer to "the man 
who then played the chief part in Switzerland," i.e. 
Stapfer, "who had promised him all his support in 
this career,^ ' I want to he a sclwolmaster.'' " A short 
time after, on the 21st of May, 1798, Stapfer being 
away, he wrote to the minister of justice to offer him 
his services in view " of a sweeping reform of educa- 
tion and of the schools for the lower classes of the 

1 Schv)anengesang , § 170. 
30 



STANZ 31 

people." He communicated his ideas and his projects 
to Legrand, one of the members of the Swiss Direc- 
tory, who recognised, as he did, that " the culture of 
the people would attain its maximum of efficiency by 
the perfect education of a sufficiently great number of 
individuals, taken from the poorest classes, on condi- 
tion that the children should not be raised above their 
station by this education, but should be thoroughly 
fitted for it." 

On Stapfer's return, Pestalozzi submitted to him his 
plan of a school for poor children, similar to the one 
which he had described in Leonard and Gertrude. 
The Directory approved of this plan, and promised not 
only an annual contribution of three thousand francs, 
but also all facilities for the installation. But the 
difficulty of finding a suitable building delayed the 
execution of this project. Meanwhile the Directory, 
knowing Pestalozzi's devotion to the cause of liberty, 
charged him with the task of drawing up an address 
to the cantons which had not yet accepted the Con- 
stitution, and also intrusted to him the editorship of 
the Helvetisches Volksblatt, a newspaper started by the 
government. 

As the little town of Stanz, capital of the canton of 
Mdwalden, had been burnt down by the troops of the 
Directory, in consequence of an insurrection, the gov- 
ernment had to undertake the charge of more than 
five hundred children, either orphans or the children 
of needy parents, and determined, on the 5th of 
December, 1798, to found an orphanage under Pesta- 
lozzi's management and the supervision of Businger, 
a priest, and Truttmann, a government inspector. 
The new institute was installed in an annex of the 



32 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

convent of the Clarisses in Stanz, and organised at 
once to receive eighty children, with a first grant of 
six thousand francs. 

Full of enthusiasm, Pestalozzi betook himself on 
December 7th to Stanz. "I was glad to go," he 
writes. "My eager desire to put my hand at last 
to the work of realising the great dream of my life 
would have made me ascend the highest Alps, 1 
could almost say would have made me begin without 
fire and water, if I were only allowed to begin." He 
met with very great material difficulties, but he did 
not let himself be cast down. On the 14th of January, 
1799, the first children were admitted, but for lack of 
beds they had to spend the night at home, and re- 
turned covered with vermin. Obliged to do every- 
thing himself, having as his only helper a housekeeper 
and her daughter, Pestalozzi worked day and night, 
by turn director, teacher, nurse, and servant of the 
children confided to his care. Four weeks after, the 
institute numbered sixty-two pupils, although there 
were still only beds for fifty. In spite of the open 
hostility of the Roman Catholic population of Stanz, 
who considered Pestalozzi as a heretic and as the offi- 
cial of a foreign government besides, he left no stone 
unturned in order to win the affection of the chil- 
dren, to whom he devoted himself with a paternal 
care. As at Neuhof, — in conformity moreover with 
the plan he had submitted to the Directory, — he at 
first wanted to combine instruction properly so-called 
with manual labour; but he soon recognised that 
before there could be any question of that, " element- 
ary education in study and in work must be imparted, 
each by itself and independently, and the peculiar 



STANZ 33 

nature and needs of each be determined." He already 
considered manual labour more from the point of view 
of physical exercise, and as a preparation for earning 
a livelihood, than with regard to the actual present 
pecuniary profit which might be made by the work. 

Similarly, his aim was less to teach reading and 
writing to the children than to develop their moral 
powers in as many directions, and as effectively as 
possible. That is why his general principle was to 
bring the knowledge of the most insignificant thing 
taught to perfection. He trained his pupils to become 
his helpers. He put a more advanced child between 
two less advanced, and made him teach them what he 
had learnt, for Pestalozzi desired to make every indi- 
vidual child capable of teaching others. 

The teaching of morality, limited to the notions of 
right and duty, was above all practical, and founded, 
according to Pestalozzi's principle, on conceptions 
gained by the medium of sense-perception, i.e. he con- 
nected it with the actual experience of the child. He 
held no discourses, gave no didactic ex^planations, but 
seized all the occasions furnished by the daily life of 
the children. The whole secret of his success lay in 
the children's devotion to their master. " I knew no 
order, no method, no art, which was not founded on 
the natural results of the conviction the children had 
of my love for them." 

" As I had," relates Pestalozzi, " to teach the chil- 
dren single-handed, without any help whatever, I 
learnt the art of teaching many at once, and as I had 
no other means than that of repeating aloud to them, 
and making them repeat what I had said after me, 
the idea naturally occurred to me of making them 



34 PESTALOZZrS LIFE 

draw, write, and work while tliey learnt. The con- 
fusion of the number of children repeating all at once 
conducted me to the necessity of making them repeat 
all together, in rhythm, and this speaking all together 
increased the impression of what was taught. The 
complete ignorance of everything made me long keep 
to the elements, and this conducted me to experiences 
on the increased inner power which is gained through 
the perfection of the first rudiments, and of the con- 
sequences of the feeling of completion and perfection, 
even at the lowest step. I realised, as I never had 
before, the connection of the elements of every branch 
of knowledge to its perfect outline, and felt, as I had 
never felt before, the immeasurable gaps which must 
always be created if these elements are left in a state 
of confusion or imperfection. The results gained by 
attention to this point surpassed my expectations. A 
consciousness of power quickly developed in the chil- 
dren, of powers of which they were hitherto uncon- 
scious, and especially a general sense of beauty and 
order. They were conscious of themselves ; and the 
irksomeness which is generally felt in school dis- 
appeared like a ghost out of my schoolrooms; they 
wanted to do something, — they could do it, — they 
persevered, — finished and laughed; their mood was 
not the mood of learners, it. was the mood of children 
who feel unknown forces awaken in them, and in 
consequence are in an elevated frame of mind. 

"It was at Stanz that I felt how decisive were 
my experiences on the possibility of founding the 
education of the people on a psychological basis, 
of laying actual perceptions on its foundation, and 
tearing off the mask from the superficial verbosity 



STANZ 35 

of education as then given. I felt that I could solve 
the problem, to the satisfaction of the man who looked 
deeply and was possessed of strength without preju- 
dice; but I could not yet prove what I knew well 
enough to the prejudiced herd, which like geese have 
been, from the time they crept out of their shell, fed 
in the kitchen and in the coop, and consequently have 
lost all power of swimming and of flying." 

The Directory was informed of the success of the 
undertaking by the reports of Truttmann and Businger, 
who were loud in his praise. "It is astonishing," 
writes the former to Eengger, the minister, on the 
11th of February, 1799, to see what this excellent 
man has done, and the great progress made in so short 
a time by the pupils, who are most eager to learn. 
There is no doubt the State will be recompensed in a 
very few years for the sacrifices it has made in this 
beneficent work." Businger again wrote to the 
Directory, "One can hardly believe one's eyes and 
ears when one sees and hears what he has attained 
in so short a time." And yet the very man who re- 
ported these results seemed not to understand Pesta- 
lozzi's idea. Truttmann, for instance, felt himself 
called upon to advise him to modify his institute 
after the model of the orphanage at Zurich, and as he 
could not prevail on him to do so, communicated to the 
minister his doubts as to the final success of the 
undertaking. And some months after, in November, 
1799, Businger wrote, " Pestalozzi, the worthy citizen, 
undertook the management of this orphanage with the 
best of good will and with all possible energy, but his 
temper, embittered by much suffering, the weakness 
which is the result of his age, the manner in which he 



86 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

neglects everything external, and other defects, con- 
tribute to the result, that this good work has from the 
beginning failed in its beneficent aim, and that every 
man of foresight would have wished to see Pestalozzi 
anywhere but here." He was not understood better 
by the children's families, for they only saw in him a 
needy man whose chief aim was to earn a livelihood 
for himself. Stapfer, the minister, was almost the 
only one who did not judge him wrongly, and he con- 
tinued to give Pestalozzi his support. 

As the French had made Stanz their headquarters, 
and established a hospital in the orphanage building, 
the children who could be sent back to their parents 
were sent home, and most of the others quartered out 
in families ; there only remained twenty-two out of 
the eighty pupils of the institute. " That was the re- 
ward of my work at Stanz," Pestalozzi writes sor- 
rowfully, "work which perhaps no mortal man ever 
attempted on such a scale and under such circum- 
stances." 

Discouraged and exhausted, he was compelled to 
rest for a time, and went up to the mountains to try 
and recover his strength, his friend Zehender having 
invited him to stay at his house at Gurnigel. But 
Pestalozzi still clung to the hope of going back to 
Stanz. 



CHAPTER IV 

BURGDORF AND MUNCHENBUCHSEE (1799-1805) 

Pestalozzi's arrival at Burgdorf. — His teaching at the town 
school. — His first ideas of the ^ jB C of Sense- Perception and 
first application of his method. — Favourable report of the 
scholastic commission. — Pestalozzi is appointed teacher. — 
Arrival of his first co-worker, Kriisi. — Kriisi's and Ram- 
sauer's accounts of Pestalozzi's manner of teaching. — New 
colleagues, Tobler and Buss. — Support given by the Societij 
for the Promotion of Education and by the government. — 
Foundation of the Burgdorf Institute. — Prosperity of the 
Institute. — Publication of How Gertrude teaches her Chil- 
dren, the first work in which the principles of the method 
were laid down. — Success of this work from the point of 
view of Pestalozzi's reputation. — Number of foreign visitors. 
— Official inspection and report of Dean Ith ; the institute is 
declared a national establishment. — Reports of Soyaux of 
Berlin and Gruner of Saxony ; details as to the application 
of the method at the institute. — Pestalozzi elected member 
of the Consulta. — His journey to Paris. — Interview with 
Bonaparte. — His disappointment. — Arrival of Muralt and 
Niederer. — Publication of elementary text-books. — Removal 
of the institute to Miinchenbuchsee. — Pestalozzi and Fellen- 
burg. — Pestalozzi's departure for Yverdon. 

After some weeks' rest at Gnrnigel, Pestalozzi re- 
turned to Stanz, more determined than ever to carry 
out his idea. Stapfer, who always believed in his 
genius, communicated with the Directory, in a letter 
in which he eloquently recalled Pestalozzi's services 
and dwelt on his desire of continuing his experience 

37 



38 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

as a teacher in the schools at Burgdorf, which Pro- 
fessor Fischer, a disciple of Salzmann, the philan- 
thropist, was then occupied in reorganising. "He 
asks," wrote Stapfer, "neither salary nor title; he 
merely asks for rooms free of charge in a government 
building." 

The Executive of the Directory granted this request 
and gave Pestalozzi rooms in the castle at Burgdorf, 
with permission to teach in the local schools, and the 
promise of a quarterly sum of one hundred and sixty 
Swiss livres (ten louis d'or), if he succeeded, i.e. "if 
his work benefited the pupils and furthered the per- 
fecting of his method." 

Pestalozzi began his new duties in the tenants' 
school at Burgdorf. The schoolmaster, Samuel Dysli, 
bootmaker by trade, was to share his schoolroom and 
his pupils with him. But Pestalozzi's presence soon 
resulted in exciting Dysli's mistrust and jealousy and 
making Dysli only see in him a rival desirous of tak- 
ing away his pupils. At his instigation, the parents 
united in declaring that they would not permit the 
new master to experiment any longer on their chil- 
dren. Pestalozzi was then authorised to teach in an 
elementary school conducted by a Fraulein Stahli. 

Continuing at Burgdorf the experiments he had 
commenced at Stanz, he began to teach, as he says 
himself, empirically, with neither plan nor method. 
" I crowed," as he puts it, " my ABC every day from 
morning till night, put rows of syllables indefatigably 
together, filled whole exercise books with columns of 
them and columns of figures, and tried in every possible 
way to bring the rudiments of reading and arithmetic 
to their utmost simplicity, and into forms contrived 



BURGDORF AND MUNCHENBUCHSEE 39 

by the greatest psychological art to bring the child 
very gradually from the first step to the second, but 
then in uninterrupted continuity from the foundation 
of the absolutely comprehended second, quickly and 
surely to the third and fourth. But instead of the 
letters which I made the children in Stanz draw on 
their slates, I made these children draw angles, squares, 
lines, and curves. In the course of this work, there un- 
folded itself gradually in my mind the idea of the possi- 
bility of an A B C of sense-perception, to which I now 
attach great importance, and with the working out of 
which the whole extent of a general method of instruc- 
tion stood complete, though still obscure, before my 
eyes." The exercise books of which he speaks were 
as a matter of fact the manuscripts of the books which 
he proposed to publish on the application of his ele- 
mentary method, and were to be used in the teaching 
of reading and arithmetic. 

As he could not resume his post at Stanz, in spite 
of his desire to do so and Stapf er's favourable report, 
for the orphanage had been reorganised and confided 
to the management of Businger, the priest, Pestalozzi 
again reverted to his original idea of starting an edu- 
cational establishment at Neuhof. He also desired to 
publish his elementary books. Stapfer asked for and 
obtained an advance from the government of sixteen 
hundred livres (one hundred louis d'or), to help him 
in the realisation of this project, but material difiicul- 
ties prevented him from establishing himself at 
Neuhof. 

At the end of the scholastic year, in March, 1800, 
Pestalozzi received the visit of the Board of Educa- 
tion, which reported very favourably on his manner 



40 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

of teaching. The report, addressed to Pestalozzi him- 
self, remarked that in eight months he had not only 
taught children of five and six years of age to read 
perfectly, but that the best among them could already 
write and draw well, and had made a good beginning 
in arithmetic. Moreover, he had succeeded in awaking 
among all a taste for history, natural history, geog- 
raphy, geometry, etc., so that if their future masters 
only knew how to profit reasonably by this prepa- 
ration, they would find their task singularly facili- 
tated. But what in the eyes of the members of the 
Board still more distinguished Pestalozzi's method 
from other methods in use until then, was that it 
could " be applied at the earliest age at which instruc- 
tion is given in the family circle, by every mother, 
every child that is a little older than the beginner, and 
even by every intelligent servant in the midst of her 
household avocations." As a reward for his ser- 
vices, Pestalozzi was appointed, in the following May, 
teacher of the second boys' school in Burgdorf. 

It was about this time that Pestalozzi had the good 
fortune to find a valuable fellow-worker in Kriisi, a 
young teacher who had come from the canton of Ap- 
penzell in January at Fischer's invitation, with twenty- 
eight poor children, whom he was going to teach. 
These were boarded out in charitable families. 
Fischer died suddenly in May, 1800, and then Pesta- 
lozzi suggested to Kriisi that they should join their 
schools. He obtained permission from government to 
house both in the castle at Burgdorf. Kriisi gladly 
and gratefully accepted the partnership. An experi- 
ence in teaching of six years' duration had developed 
qualities in this young master which his colleague did 



BURGDORF AND MUNCHENBUCHSEE 41 

not possess, but which he had the sense to recognise. 
" Pestalozzi," he tells us, " gave me a free hand, for 
he saw that as a teacher I possessed many qualities 
which he lacked. On the other hand, I conceived a 
high esteem for his views, his efforts, and his experi- 
ments, I was encouraged by the confidence he had in 
me and delighted at his affection for me, although at 
the same time I did not approve of many details 
of his method." And Krtisi gives us interesting par- 
ticulars of Pestalozzi's manner of teaching. " He had, 
I was going to say, almost brazen lungs, and any one 
who had not, would have to give up all idea of speak- 
ing or rather shouting continuously as he did. Even 
if I had had such lungs myself, I should often have 
desired that he and his pupils, when reciting or an- 
swering in class, might have used more moderation 
and lowered their voices. There were other points on 
which I never could entirely agree with him. For ex- 
ample, he wanted to teach two subjects to a class at 
the same time ; he tried especially to combine exer- 
cises in speaking with freehand drawing and writing. 
Now it seemed to me that undivided attention 
directed to one subject and one piece' of work at a 
time would have been infinitely more profitable than 
such divided attention. But these differences, far 
from disturbing the harmony of our relations, often 
only contributed to throw more light on the subject, 
and to show up more clearly the advantages or disad- 
vantages of this or that proceeding. However this 
may be, Pestalozzi did not conceal his joy at having 
at length found an assistant who tried to fathom his 
views and to attain the end he strove after." 

We have also at this interesting period the testi- 



42 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

mony of one of Krtisi's Appenzell pupils, Johann 
Ramsauer, then ten years of age. " I learnt nothing 
there in ordinary school fashion," he writes, "any 
more than the other pupils did ; but Pestalozzi in- 
spired enthusiasm, and his devotion, his love, his utter 
disregard of himself, his precarious and difficult situa- 
tion, which even the children remarked, made a most 
deep impression on me, and knit my childish heart 
to his by bonds of eternal gratitude. ... In this 
school, where the whole teaching according to Pesta- 
lozzi's ideas was to have as starting-point language, 
number, and form, there was no scheme of work prop- 
erly so called and no time-table. Pestalozzi did not 
confine himself to any fixed hour, but generally kept 
on at the same subject for two or three hours at a 
time. There were about sixty of us, boys and girls 
from eight to fifteen years of age, and the school 
hours were from eight to eleven in the morning and 
from two to four in the afternoon. The whole teach- 
ing was reduced to drawing, arithmetic, and exercises 
in speaking. There was no reading or writing, con- 
sequently we had neither printed books nor exercise 
books. We learnt nothing by heart, neither the 
Bible nor anything else. As to drawing, we had 
neither copies nor were we told what we were to 
draw ; we had nothing but a piece of red chalk and a 
slate, and while Pestalozzi recited to us, as exercise in 
speaking, sentences on natural history, we were to 
draw ' what we chose.' But we did not know what 
to draw, so that some of the children drew men and 
women, others houses, others lines, curves, or any- 
thing else that came into their heads. Besides Pesta- 
lozzi never looked at what we had drawn, or rather 



BURGDORF AND MUXCFIENBUCHSEE 43 

scrawled. The condition of our clothes, especially of 
our cuft's and elbows, was a sufficient proof that we 
had been using red chalk. In order to learn to count, 
we had to every two pupils a little diagram pasted on 
cardboard, on which dots were arranged in squares. 
These we had to count, and by their help add, sub- 
tract, multiply, and divide. From these diagrams 
Kriisi and Buss afterward made tables of unity, and 
later on fraction tables. But as Pestalozzi contented 
himself with reciting aloud and making the pupils 
repeat after him, one at a time, without ever asking 
us any questions or giving us any sums to do, these 
exercises, excellent as they were in their way, had no 
great result. He was besides not patient enough to 
make the pupils repeat or to put questions to them, 
and in his boundless zeal he seemed not to trouble 
himself about any one child. The best part of his 
teaching consisted of exercises in speaking, those at 
least which he put us through on the designs of the 
wall-papers in the class room. These were real exer- 
cises in sense-perception. The wall-papers were very 
old and all torn, and we often had to stand in front 
of them for two or three hours at a time, to say what 
we saw in the figures and holes there, as regards form, 
number, position, and colour, and compose longer and 
longer sentences on what we saw. Thus he asked us : — 

Boys, what do you see 9 (He never addressed him- 
self to the girls.) 

Answer, A hole in the wall. A tear in the partition. 

Pestalozzi. Very well. Repeat after me, I see a hole 
in the wall-paper. 

I see a long hole in the wall-paper. 



44 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

Behind the hole I see the 'wall. 

Behind the long and narrow hole I see the wall. 

Repeat again, I see the figures on the wall-paper. 

I see black figures on the wall-paper. 

I see round black figures on the wall-paper. 

I see a square yelloio figure on the wall-paper. 

Beside the square yelloio figure on the wall-paper I see 
a black round one. 

The square figure is joined to the round one by a thick 
black line, etc. 

The exercises on natural history were less success- 
ful. While we were drawing on our slates in the 
manner I have already described, he made us re- 
peat : — 

Amphibious animcds. Amp)hihious animals which 

have paivs. 
Amjyhibious animals ichich 
climb. 
Monkeys. Tailed monkeys. 

Tailless monkeys. 

We did not understand a single word, for he never 
explained anything to us, and he recited it all in a 
chanting fashion, so quickly and so indistinctly, that 
it would have been a miracle if we had understood 
any of it, or got any good at all out of it. Besides he 
shouted fearfully and perpetually, which prevented 
him from hearing what w^e repeated after him, the 
more so because he never stopped when he had fin- 
ished one sentence, but recited a whole page in one 
breath. Everything he thus recited was written on 
a sheet of cardboard, and our share of the repetition 
was generally limited to repeating the last word or 



BURGDORF AND MUNCHENBUCHSEE 45 

syllable. There never was any attempt at question- 
ing us, or making us repeat an exercise a second 
time. 

" As Pestalozzi in his zeal never bound himself to 
fixed hours, we generally kept on till eleven o'clock at 
what we began at eight, and at ten o'clock he was gen- 
erally hoarse and utterly exhausted. We knew when 
it was eleven o'clock because we heard the noise the 
other school children made in the streets, and then we 
all ran off without stopping to say good-bye. 

^' Although Pestalozzi strictly forbade his colleagues 
to use corporal punishment, he did not hesitate to 
resort to it himself, and boxed the boys' ears right 
and left. But most of his pupils made his life such 
a burden to him that I was sorry for him, and kept 
all the quieter. He soon noticed this, and often took 
me for a walk at eleven o'clock. Every fine day he 
went to hunt for stones, which was his chief diversion. 
I, too, had to pick up stones, although it seemed very 
singular to me, for there were millions of them, and I 
did not know which to take. He did not understand 
anything about them either, but he filled his pockets 
and his handkerchief with them every day all the 
same, and carried them home, though he never looked 
at them again after that. He kept this hobby all his 
life ; and it was hard to find a handkerchief in the 
whole school at Burgdorf which was not full of holes 
made by taking pebbles home." ^ 

It was also in 1799, towards the end of the year, 
that Pestalozzi received the visit of Herbart, on his 
return from Marchlingen, where he had just spent 

1 Ramsauer, Kurze Skizze meines pddagogischen Lebens, 1838, 
pp. 7-10. 



46 PESTALOZZrS LIFE 

two years as tutor in the family of Von Steiger, who 
was bailiff there. This visit made a great imj^ression 
on Herbart, who gives us the following account of it : ^ — 

" A dozen children from five to eight years of age 
were summoned at an unusual hour of the evening to 
the school ; I was afraid that they would be ill-tem- 
pered, and that the experiment I had come to see 
would be a failure. But the children came without a 
trace of reluctance ; an animated activity lasted with- 
out interruption to the end." 

After having praised the exercises in answering all 
together, and admired the pupils' skill in drawing 
geometrical figures, Herbart adds: — 

" But why did Pestalozzi cause so much to be learnt 
by heart ? Why did he seem to have chosen the sub- 
jects of instruction with so little regard to the chil- 
dren's natural inclinations ? Why did he always only 
make them learn, never converse with them, never 
talk, never joke, never tell them stories ? — Why were 
his sentences so disconnected, why did the names he 
gave stand out so solitary ? — Why did everything 
which is so often suggested to mitigate the seri- 
ousness of school here seem despised? — How did 
he, the man who was otherwise from the very begin- 
ning so friendly, so amiable, who greeted everything 
human in so human a fashion, whose first word seemed 
to say to every stranger: 'Here let every one who 
deserves to find a heart find one' — how was it that 
such a man, I say, did not give more pleasure to, did 
not more combine the agreeable with the useful for, the 
children who occupied his whole soul ? 

" These questions did not certainly puzzle me as much 

iSee Festalozzibldtter, p. 307. 



BURGDORF AND MUNCHENBUCHSEE 47 

as they would have puzzled others. My own experi- 
ence and experiments had prepared me to estimate 
children's mental powers far more highly than people 
generally do, and to seek for the causes of their willing- 
ness or unwillingness to learn far from superfluous 
pastimes on the one hand, or supposed dryness and 
difficulty of such things which demand seriousness and 
attention on the other. I had often found that with 
children what was supposed to be easy was difficult, 
and what was supposed to be difficult was easy. I 
had long considered the feeling of clear grasp the only 
real condiment in instruction. And a perfect regularity 
of progression which should answer all the demands 
which could be made on it was for me the great ideal, 
in which I saw the all-penetrating means of ensuring 
its real efficacy. Just the very search for this system- 
atic progression, this arranging and joining together 
what must be taught at the same time and what suc- 
cessively, was, as 1 understood, Pestalozzi's chief aim. 
If we assume that he has found it, or at any rate is on 
the right road to finding it, every non-essential addition, 
every assistance by circuitous routes, in the form of 
distraction, of diverting the mind from the chief object 
in view, must be harmful and to be deprecated. If on 
the other hand he has not found that true succession of 
steps to knowledge, it must be found or at any rate be 
improved upon and continued ; but then too his method 
is at any rate so far correct, in that it throws away 
harmful additions ; its laconic brevity is its essential 
merit. No useless word is heard in the school ; conse- 
quently the continuity of grasp is never interrupted. 
The teacher speaks perpetually so that the children 
may repeat after him, a v/rong letter is at once wiped 



48 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

from the slate ; thus the chikl can never stop at his 
errors. The right path is never forsaken ; and thus 
every moment has its progress. 

" And yet the committing to memory of names, sen- 
tences, definitions, and the apparent lack of concern as 
to whether it was all understood, caused me to doubt 
and to put questions. Pestalozzi answered by another 
question: ^ Would the children learn so quickly and 
so cheerfully if they understood nothing?' I had 
seen this cheerfulness with my own eyes ; I could not 
explain it if I did not assume the existence of a mental 
activity. But this assumption of mine was more belief 
than conviction. In further conversation, however, 
Pestalozzi led me to the idea that the inward compre- 
hensibleness of the instruction was after all much 
more important than the momentary understanding. 
Most of what was learnt by heart here had to do with 
objects of the daily sense-perception ; the child, with 
his description in his mind, left the school, met 
with the object described, perceived it with his senses, 
and now perhaj^s for the first time comprehended the 
meaning of the words, but he comprehended them 
more completely than if the teacher had tried to 
explain his words by other words. Do then the happy 
moments of understanding and especially those of 
more concentrated thought, combination, and medita- 
tion come just in certain lesson hours ? The lessons 
give the comprehensible, and put together those things 
which belong together ; time and opportunity will later 
on bring comprehension, and join and cement what has 
been brought together. 

" We must not forget that it was only a question here 
of young children. For such a word or a name is not, 



BURGDORF AND MUNCHENBUCHSEE 49 

as it is for us, the mere sign of a thing : for them the 
word is itself a thing; they stop at the sound; and 
not until that has become an everyday thing to them 
do they learn to forget it while thinking of the thing." ^ 

As the work increased it became necessary to look 
out for new helpers, especially as neither Pestalozzi 
nor Kriisi could teach singing or drawing. Kriisi 
went to Basle to visit his fellow-countryman and 
friend, Tobler. Tobler had been a teacher and was 
now a theological student and at the same time master 
of a school for poor children. He suggested as master 
for singing and drawing a young Wlirttemberger book- 
binder, Buss by name, who had a taste for music and 
drawing. Buss gladly accepted, and " hastened to Pes- 
talozzi without making any inquiries as to salary or 
other conditions." ^ Tobler at first could not make 
up his mind to leave his school ; but Kriisi urged him 
so strongly that he finally promised his help, and he 
arrived at Burgdorf a few weeks later. His duties 
were to help Pestalozzi in his literary work, teach 
geography, and direct the moral and religious educa- 
tion of the children. 

" Our staff consisted then of four persons, and was a 
curious mixture, the result of a singular combination 
of circumstances : a founder, who joined to his high 
reputation as author that of a visionary, of a man use- 
less in practical life, and three young men, one of 
whom was a teacher, who after a neglected youth sud- 
denly flung himself into university studies, and 

1 Herbart, tfher PestalozzVs neueste Schrift : Wie Gertrud ihre 
Kinder lehri. (Complete Works, ed. by Rohrbach, Vol. I, pp. 137 et 
seq.) 

2 Kriisi, Erinnerungen aus meinem pddagogischen Leben und 
Wirken., 1840, p. 15. 



50 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

devoted himself unsuccessfully to all sorts of experi- 
ments in teaching ; another a bookbinder, who in his 
free hours tried to gratify his taste for drawing and 
singing ; finally the third, a village schoolmaster, who 
followed his calling as well as he could, having had no 
preparation for it. Any one who saw this group of 
men, and remembered that not one of them had where 
to lay his head, could not be blamed for only expect- 
ing a meagre result from their efforts. And yet the 
work succeeded. The institute won the confidence of 
the public to a degree which surpassed the expectation 
of all who knew us, and above all it gained ours. On 
all sides from far and near pupils arrived by crowds."^ 

At the beginning of June, at the initiative of 
Stapf er, the minister, a Society of the Friends of Educa- 
tion had been founded, the aim of which was to pro- 
mote Pestalozzi's efforts, and make them known to the 
public. This society appointed a commission and sent 
it to Burgdorf to study the working of his method. 
Before setting out, however, the commission invited 
Pestalozzi to give an account of his principles and of 
his proceedings in an address to them. In this address 
Pestalozzi enunciated for the first time the principle 
of his method.^ At the close of its visit, the commis- 
sion drew up a very favourable report, which brought 
Pestalozzi a grant of five hundred francs from govern- 
ment, and caused him to determine to make an appeal 
to the public for help in his undertaking. 

All this encouragement made Pestalozzi decide, to 
resume his independence and found an institute of his 

1 Kriisi, Erinnerungen aus meinem pddagogisclien Leben und 
Wlrken, p. 15, 

^ This account of his method is reprodnced almost literally in 
letters 4 and 5 of Hoiv Gertrude teaches her Children. 



BURGDORF AND MUNCHENBUCHSEE 51 

own. He sent in his resignation as village teacher, 
and on the 24th of October, 1800, advertised in the 
newspapers the opening of an educational establishment 
for pupils belonging to the middle classes. The gov- 
ernment granted him the free use of the castle at 
Burgdorf for his school. The fee for board and tui- 
tion was fixed at from sixteen to twenty louis a year. 
Later on he meant to add an orphan asylum and a 
training college for teachers to this boarding school. 

Thanks to the help of the Society of the Friends of 
Education, which issued an appeal on November 20, 
"to the citizens (male and female) of Helvetia" for a 
subscription of thirty-two thousand francs, the sum 
necessary to start the undertaking, and also to some 
favourable notices which appeared in some important 
German newspapers, pupils came in rapidly, and soon 
the Burgdorf castle was not large enough to hold them 
all. Soon after this, Pestalozzi lost his son Jacob, who 
died at Neuhof on the 15th of August, 1801, after 
several months' ilhiess. 

The prosperity of the institute at length enabled 
Pestalozzi to begin to edit for the public the principles 
of his method, which he embodied in his book, Hoio 
Gertrude teaches her Children. This appeared in 
October, 1801 ; but the first letter is dated the 1st of 
January previous to this. In spite of its title, the 
work is nothing more or less than a series of letters on 
education, the two first containing many biographical 
details. The series, fourteen in number, was addressed 
to Gessner, the bookseller. 

The publication of this work gained for Pestalozzi 
a wider and more lasting fame. Visitors came in 
crowds from the whole of Switzerland and Germany, 



52 PESTALOZZrS LIFE 

to see for themselves the "method'' in application. 
Dean Ith, who was sent by the government to inspect 
the establishment, drew up a most favourable report, on 
the strength of which the Helvetian government trans- 
formed Pestalozzi's establishment into a national in- 
stitute, and awarded the head-master, as well as his 
elder colleagues, a fixed salary, and moreover paid 
part of the cost of the publication of the elementary 
books they compiled. 

One of the visitors who came from abroad to see the 
institute, Soyaux of Berlin, has left us a most interest- 
ing portrait of Pestalozzi. " It was only necessary to 
see this man,'' he says, " to have the best opinion of 
him : he is always immersed in thought ; he sees more 
in himself than outside himself ; more in the world of 
his ideas than in the actual world. A spirit of unrest, 
an inner impulse, drives him on some days from one 
room to the other, from one colleague to another. One 
would then say he was in pursuit of an idea which 
always fled before him, and that he was devoting his 
whole mind to solving some complicated problem. . . . 
At other times he spends whole days in his room, where 
he passes his time in meditation and writing, wholly 
oblivious of himself and his affairs. To begin a con- 
versation with him is easy enough, but it is seldom 
that one is able to fix him on one subject, and lead him 
to a satisfactory conclusion. He only breaks the thread 
of his meditations for a few minutes, says a kind word 
or two, and then draws back into his shell. When, 
however, one can direct his attention to well-grounded 
objections and doubts, he becomes lively and commu- 
nicative. He speaks rapidly and to the point, in an 
energetic and decisive manner. Contradiction does 



BURGDORF AND MUNCHENBUCHSEE 53 

not irritate him, but has rarely any other effect than 
to fix him more firmly than ever in his own opinion. 

*' His heart is full of affection and friendship. He 
seems to prefer to communicate with his friends and 
pupils by a mute expression of his feelings than by 
ideas and words. A friendly tap, an energetic shake 
of the hand, a benevolent look, a sympathetic or grate- 
ful clasp of the hand, are more in accordance with his 
nature than wordy reflections or superficial remarks. 
. . . He recoils from no sacrifice if the aim is good 
and noble. He carries his oblivion of the interests of 
himself and his family too far, for he takes in too 
many children free of charge. 

" The firmness and independence of his mind mani- 
fest themselves also in his exterior. He cannot plume 
himself on social breeding. He expresses his thoughts 
and convictions, his feelings and desires, in a clear and 
original manner. Unaccustomed to the forms of Euro- 
pean society, he abandons himself to the natural im- 
pulses of his mind and heart. He is quiet, sincere, 
earnest, hearty, modestly firm, lively without being 
carried away by sensual impulses, attentive from force 
of sympathy, but lacking refinement, without any trace 
of outside influence in his words or actions. As he 
has not been educated by men, he does not know how 
to exert an active influence on them. He is a thinker 
rather than an educator." On the subject of the prac- 
tical part of Pestalozzi's teaching, Soyaux remarks that 
" his principles are still in germ and are rather at the 
stage of projects than of maturity and completion." 
Nor must one expect perfect organisation. Soyaux 
admires the spirit of concord and the love of progress 
which inspires all the members of the institute. 



54 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

The establishment then included one hundred and 
two persons, seventy -two being pupils of from iive to 
thirteen years of age, ten masters, and several foreign- 
ers who had come to learn the method. There were 
no classes pro2:)erly so called, but the pupils were 
divided into five or six groups, which were differently 
constituted according to the needs of their studies. 
There were no books for the beginners, except the 
ABC for the children who were learning to read. 
Diagrams hung in all the class rooms. " The smallest 
children learn to count by the help of pebbles, leaves, 
trees, etc., and to draw lines on their slates. Others 
count the lines on the first diagram and learn to add 
and subtract by their help. In the first lessons, the 
master repeats aloud, and makes the pupils repeat 
after him, this exercise of the method, word for word, 
pointing to the diagram, until they perfectly compre- 
hend what they are to do ; then they follow his exam- 
ple, i.e. each one in turns takes the master's pla(?e and 
teaches the others just as he did. Thus the pupil 
learns and teaches at the same time. These arith- 
metic lessons are continued according to fixed and rigor- 
ous rules ; the master has only to see that there are 
no gaps in continuity and no confusion. The more 
advanced pupils are occupied at the same time with 
other diagrams. Then follow some examples of sums 
on fractions worked mentally by pupils of eight and 
nine years of age." 

Soyaux goes on to give us the description of the 
teaching of drawing, and the teaching to speak by the 
help of the A B C of sense-perception, and especially 
draws attention to the ease with which the pupils 
drew geometrical figures, and even maps on a reduced 



BURGDOUF AND MUNCIIENBUCIISEE 65 

scale, most accurately without the help of any instru- 
ment. 

Here again are other interesting details on the life 
led in the establishment. " At six o'clock in the morn- 
ing all the house is astir, and at the stroke of ten at 
night the children are assembled in the hall. Pesta- 
lozzi stands in their midst and holds a paternal moral 
review. But, as he likes to have no witnesses at such 
a time, I have not dared to gratify my wish to be 
present at his expense." The physical and moral 
health of the children is perfect. " They have no highly 
seasoned food to excite their palates, nothing to ener- 
vate their bodies, to intoxicate their senses, to cramp 
their hearts, nor to corrupt their morals. Separated 
from the world, kept in constant activity and always 
under the supervision of their masters, they give 
themselves up to their childish innocence and their 
natural light-heartedness. Their daily occupations 
take such possession of their minds that they do not 
think of anything but . . . drawing and arithmetic. 
Even on Sundays they come together of their own 
accord in the class rooms to do sums, either alone 
or in groups together. How many times I have seen 
children enthusiastically reciting to themselves their 
tables of sense-perception ! . . . 

"As to discipline, the ruling principle is to leave 
the children the greatest liberty possible, and only to 
prevent abuses. Nowhere does the restrictive force 
of a rule make itself felt. Masters and pupils are as 
simple and natural in their manner as isolated inhab- 
itants of mountains. They know nothing of acquired 
politeness, of refined manners, of sounding phrases, of 
the usages of society. The children obey their natural 



56 PESTALOZZrS LIFE 

impulses in all their freshness and simplicity; they 
are not in the least self-conscious. While enjoying 
the most complete liberty, they nevertheless keep 
within certain rightful limits ; obstinacy, unkind teas- 
ing, love of quarrelling, etc., are extremely rare among 
them. Ever since the foundation of the institute 
there has been no need of punishment. There is no 
trace of bigotry, nor of the pedantic manner so repug- 
nant in schoolmasters. Pestalozzi's principles as re- 
gards moral education are excellent. ^ Try to retain 
the natural living warmth in the heart of the young, 
for it is in this natural warmth and not in the glimmer 
of the lamp of moral reflections that the germs of good 
develop ; . • • put yourself in such relations with the 
child that he may love you and have full confidence 
in you.' . . . 

"Thus masters and pupils live in a beneficent har- 
mony. . . . The masters do not dream of making 
their authority felt by commands or reproofs; they 
utter their prohibitions in a gentle warning tone; 
their praise is reduced to ... a pleased look, a 
clasp of the hand. The children for their part are 
attached to their guides and have a hearty confidence 
in them, and are never wanting in the respect which 
the masters command by their intelligence, their even 
temper, and their good intentions. It is always diffi- 
cult to keep to the golden mean. That is the case 
here too. The children are, as a matter of fact, too 
little restricted. There are hardly any rules at all. 
During lessons they can sit or stand as they choose, 
and take whatever places they like. . . . Naturally, 
with the high spirits of their years, they resemble a 
group of persons pushing and shoving to get the best 



BURGDORF AND MUNCHENBUCHSEE 57 

place more than a class of pupils who desire to learn, 
among whom there ought to be a certain order, if 
the aim proposed is to be attained. However, the 
peculiar character of this method puts certain limits 
to. the confusion, by calling all their liveliness into 
play in the lesson, and by taking complete possession 
of all the pupils' energies at once. For they do not 
answer one at a time, each according to his capacity, 
but all together. This may have its good points, but 
the shouting which the children take such pleasure in 
ought not to be allowed. I have been sometimes 
actually put to flight by the deafening noise made 
when several classes recited at the same time. The 
excessive exhaustion which is the result cannot be 
good for the voice ; the ear gets accustomed to the 
clamour, and finally the boy cannot speak at all with- 
out shouting." But all that contributed to keep up the 
children's interest and pleasure, so that study seemed 
to them a recreation rather than mental fatigue. 

Another visitor, this time from Saxony, Gruner, has 
left us a touching description of these gatherings, or 
" moral reviews," at which Soyaux did not venture to 
be present. All the pupils except the very youngest 
were present at these gatherings, which took place 
mornings and evenings. There were no formal cere- 
monies, " they exercised the attraction and action by 
heat and energy." ... "A small number of pupils, 
about six or eight perhaps, joyfully shook off their 
drowsiness early in the morning to be with Father Pes- 
talozzi. How many times I have seen this little group 
wait quietly and confidingly, often in the dark (in 
winter a little after six o'clock), for their teacher, 
their adopted father and friend ! Never did I remark 



58 PESTALOZZrS LIFE 

among them at such a time any outbursts of youth- 
ful agility. One would have said that the reason for 
which they were gathered together so early in the hall, 
and the expectation of what Father Pestalozzi was 
going to say to them, had given them the gravity of 
serious young men. They talked together quietly 
and confidentially. 

"But here is Pestalozzi coming in with a light. 
What benevolence and what cordiality shine in his 
face, and how they are expressed in his fatherly good 
morning ! He shakes hands with this child and that, 
he speaks to each one according to his character. 
Sometimes he addresses them all together. In a 
familiar tone and with fatherly interest he questions 
each one about himself, about his health, if he is not 
quite well, on the progress he has made in such and 
such an exercise which he finds difficult, or about 
some talent which his parents wish to be specially 
cultivated. He reminds the children of their j^arents, 
and begs them to try to please them. Often he pro- 
ceeds from remarks specially addressed to one pupil 
to exhortations addressed to all, appealing from the 
particular case to the moral and religious sentiments 
which Nature has put in the heart of all. . . . 

"Sometimes he praises a pupil for good conduct, 
for manifestations of his good heart and noble senti- 
ments. He encourages another to imitate him, re- 
minding him that he, too, has faculties for good, which 
he ought to exercise. He exhorts a third to be grate- 
ful to his Creator for having given him a good capac- 
ity for learning, and begs him never to forget the 
duty which is obligatory on him, of making something 
important out of his life. He addresses himself some- 



BURGDORF AND MUNCHENBUCHSEE 59 

times to a fourth, to reprove him in an energetic, 
fatherly fashion, if repeated complaints have been 
made to him, or if he, who knew so well how to read 
children's minds, saw in his germs which caused him 
anxiety. From time to time he interspersed a joke. 
But in all his remarks, however varied they may be, 
there is the same tone throughout of hearty fatherly 
warmth. That is why it all comes home to the chil- 
dren as a body and also to each particular one. . , . 

"Pestalozzi then proceeds from particular objects 
to general reflections, and never fails to choose topics 
which appeal to the children's hearts. Almost always 
his language is singularly lucid and clear. However, 
it sometimes happens that he is carried away to dis- 
cuss abstract ideas and obscure subjects, less within 
the range of all, or considerations which do not 
directly appeal to the feelings. As soon as he per- 
ceives this, he breaks off and passes on to the reading. 

" At the end of morning prayers, Pestalozzi begs his 
pupils to meditate often during the day on what he 
has said to them, and to let their meditation influence 
their actions. In the evening, he generally begins by 
asking the pupils how they have kept the resolutions 
made in the morning. And then it is by no means rare 
to see how open and sincere children are when treated in 
a manner perfectly in accordance with their nature." ^ 

Pestalozzi was elected in November, 1808, member 
for the cantons of Berne and Zurich on the Swiss dele- 
gation or Consulta, which was convoked by Bonaparte 
to meet at Paris and deliberate on the new Helvetian 
constitution. Pestalozzi had hoped that his journey 
would help to make his method known in France. 

1 Gruner, Briefe aiis Bargdorf, pp. 259 et seq. 



60 PESTALOZZrS LIFE 

But although Chaptal, the minister, had been apprised 
of his efforts, Pestalozzi met with nothing but indiffer- 
ence. It is even said that he tried to obtain an audi- 
ence from the First Consul, and that Bonaparte replied, 
" He could not trouble himself about the A B O." Worse 
still, the Journal de Paris treated him as a quack. Much 
discouraged, he returned to Burgdorf without waiting 
for the end of the work of the Consulta. " I, too, have 
been to Paris," he said later on, " but I saw nothing 
there." The only good result of his journey was to 
gain for his work Johann von Muralt of Zurich, a very 
distinguished young theologian, whom he had met at 
Paris and so attracted that Muralt refused the offer 
of a post as tutor from Mme. de Stael to become Pesta- 
lozzi's colleague at Burgdorf, in May, 1803. The same 
year other new masters entered the institute, among 
them Johann Niederer, an ardent admirer of Pesta- 
lozzi's, who after three years' hesitation gave up his 
ministrations as pastor at Sennwald, in the canton of 
Appenzell, to place himself at Pestalozzi's disposal. 
The same year, too, appeared Pestalozzi's elementary 
works, i.e. (1) The ABC of Sense-perception, or the 
Teaching of Geometry by the Help of Sense-perception ; ^ 

(2) The Teaching of Arithmetic by Sense-perception ;^ 

(3) The Book for Mothers.^ 

As the new government of Berne required the castle 
at Burgdorf for the new prefect, Pestalozzi, who was 
moreover regarded with suspicion by the authorities on 

^ A B C der Anschauung oder Anschauungslehre der Maszver- 
haltnisse. 

2 Anschauungslehre der Zahlverhdltnisse. 

3 Buch der Mutter, oder Anleitung fiir Mutter, ihre Kinder be- 
merken und reden zu lassen. 



BURGDORF AND MUNCHENBUCHSEE 61 

account of his radical ideas, was invited to transfer his 
institute to Mlinchenbuchsee, two leagues from Berne, 
to the old Johanniter monastery there. This building 
was, however, only granted him for the space of one 
year. The grants made him were withdrawn and repay- 
ment demanded of the four thousand francs advanced 
for the publication of his elementary books. Thanks 
to the generosity of the governments of several other 
cantons, Pestalozzi only had to repay fourteen hundred 
francs. On all sides, too, people declared that his in- 
stitute ought to be kept up, if it were only on account 
of the enthusiasm excited by it throughout all Europe. 
At the news that he would have to leave Burgdorf, 
several towns, Yverdon among them, made him most 
advantageous offers to induce him to transfer his es- 
tablishment to their territory. As he could not count 
on retaining the castle at Mlinchenbuchsee for long, 
Pestalozzi let himself be tempted by the position of 
Yverdon, on the border of the lake of Neufchatel, for 
he hoped to be able to spread his ideas into French- 
speaking districts. As, on the other hand, the num- 
ber of masters whom he had trained in his method 
was greater than he needed, he conceived the plan of 
establishing there a second institute, to which he 
promised to devote his energies at least six months 
in the year. He went there toward the middle of 
August. The municipality gave a banquet to cele- 
brate his arrival and promised to make all alterations 
necessary in the castle. The week following. Buss 
brought six or eight pupils from Mlinchenbuchsee, 
who were to form the nucleus of the institute at 
Yverdon. Pestalozzi's family had been sent to Neu-* 
hof during these changes. 



62 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

While these negotiations were pending, the installa- 
tion of the institution at Mtinchenbuchsee took place, 
on the 22nd of June, 1804. A quarter of an hour's 
journey from Mtinchenbuchsee was the important agri- 
cultural establishment of Hofwyl, which contained no 
fewer than four hundred persons, under the able man- 
agement of Fellenberg, with whom Pestalozzi was on 
friendly terms. Some of Pestalozzi's colleagues, 
among them Muralt and Tobler, who had already 
thought of relieving him of the material part of the 
management, secretly entered into negotiations with 
Fellenberg, and found him quite ready to fall in with 
their views and take over the management of the in- 
stitute at Mtinchenbuchsee. They then submitted the 
plan to Pestalozzi, pointing out to him the repose and 
the independence he would enjoy, and on the 1st of 
July, 1804, they got him to sign a treaty by which the 
actual management of the establishment was intrusted 
to Fellenberg, so as to leave Pestalozzi, it was said, 
who remained owner of the institute, an annual pen- 
sion of fifty louis and leisure to continue his literary 
work. As a matter of fact, Pestalozzi was reduced to 
complete inactivity. 

The establishment began with sixty-seven pupils 
and seven teachers, and everything seemed to indicate 
that it would prosper. Unfortunately serious dissen- 
sions soon occurred between Pestalozzi and Fellenberg, 
whose utterly dissimilar characters necessarily brought 
them into collision. In the course of September, a 
violent scene took place between them, and only the 
intervention of Niederer and Muralt prevented an 
open rupture. But that svifficed to disgust Pestalozzi 
with his stay at Mtinchenbuchsee. On the 19th of 



BURGDORF AND MUNCHENBUCHSEE 63 

October, 1804, he set out for Yverdon, accompanied 
by Niederer and Krtisi. The Miinchenbuchsee estab- 
lishment remained under Fellenberg's direction as far 
as the household management was concerned, under 
that of Tobler and Muralt for the educational part. 

Here we may consider Pestalozzi's career as a 
teacher as terminated, for from this time he devoted 
himself entirely to his literary work. " I began my 
work at Burgdorf," he wrote some time after, " and I 
finished it at Burgdorf." ^ 

1 Morf , III, p. 105. 



CHAPTER V 

YVERDON (1805-1825) 

Settlement at Y verdon. — Difficulties at starting in the institute. 

— Arrival of three Prussian pupil teachers. — Account of 
the life at the institute according to different witnesses. — 
Niederer's predominating influence. — Niederer and Joseph 
Schmid ; their rivalry. — Inspection of the institute by order 
of the Helvetian diet. — Father Girard's report in the name 
of the commission. — Witness of Karl von Raumer. — Wordy 
■war occasioned by the report of the board of inspection. — 
Schmid's departure. —Jullien's visit — Starting of a printing- 
press and sale of books ; disastrous undertaking. — Appoint- 
ment of a committee of domestic management. — Schmid's 
return. — Pestalozzi's visit to the Tsar Alexander of Russia 
and to the king of Prussia. — New conflict between Niederer 
and Schmid. — Decay of the institute. — Niederer's departure. 

— Revolts of the masters. — Negotiation with Fellenberg and 
rupture. — Success of the subscriptions for the Complete 
Works of Pestalozzi. — Opening of the orphanage at Clindy. 

— Fusion of the orphanage and institute. — Fresh quarrels 
with Niederer. — Decay and closure of the Establishment. 

The beginning at the Yverdon institute was most 
arduous, and Pestalozzi and his faithful disciples, 
Niederer and Kriisi, who shared his room until the 
castle was ready to receive them, even had to endure 
privation. Having received from the king of Denmark 
a present of a hundred louis d'or, in acknowledgment 
of his kind reception of two Danes, — Strom and 

64 



YVERDON 65 

Torlitz, — sent to Burgdorf to study the method, Pes- 
talozzi hastened to send to Miinchenbuchsee for some 
poor children there, whom Fellenberg had admitted 
very much against his inclination. But the notables, 
who always regarded Pestalozzi with suspicion, did 
not confide their children to his care, and in the 
month of December the institute only numbered 
eighteen pupils. Yet Kriisi declares that this was 
the happiest period of Pestalozzi's existence, and says 
he rarely saw him more joyous and more peaceful, 
relieved of all care for the morrow by his pension, 
and enjoying his life with the careless happiness of a 
child. It was at this time that he wrote his work 
entitled Views, Experiences, and Means of promoting 
a Method of Education which is in Coiiforrtiity with 
Human Nature} which he did not publish until 1807, 
and then only in part. 

In consequence of new scenes with Fellenberg, into 
the details of which we need not enter, the latter 
tried, it seems, to oust Pestalozzi. There was a com- 
plete rupture, and Pestalozzi's old colleagues, refusing 
to remain any longer at Miinchenbuchsee, left Fellen- 
berg to go to Yverdon, taking with them those of their 
pupils whose families consented to their removal. 
Fellenberg, enraged, demanded the payment of a con- 
siderable indemnity, and seized the furniture of the 
institute as pledge. Pestalozzi went to Miinchen- 
buchsee to regulate the matter, and there was another 
violent scene between the two, in the course of which 
Pestalozzi took off his shoes, telling Fellenberg to take 
them too if he chose, that would not prevent him from 

1 Ansichten, Erfahrimgen, mid Mittel zur Befdrderung einer der 
Menschennatur angemessener Erzlehungsweise. 



66 PESTALOZZrS LIFE 

going across Berne to Yverdon barefoot, together 
with his teachers and his pupils. Finally the affair 
was ended by a promise to pay, which Pestalozzi 
signed. Then the institute was free to move, and in 
the first days of July, 1805, all the staff was reunited 
at Yverdon. 

Here begins the most glorious, and at the same time 
the most troublous, period of Pestalozzi' s existence, — 
glorious because of the triumph of his ideas in Europe, 
troublous because of the difficulties inseparable doubt- 
less from every educational establishment, but singu- 
larly aggravated by Pestalozzi's lack of the special 
capacities necessary for a head-master, his too confid- 
ing disposition, and his absolute lack of a sense of the 
practical. 

It will be remembered with what vigour Prussia, 
crushed at Jena, set about the work of its regenera- 
tion, and that Fichte, the philosopher, contributed to 
this work by his celebrated Discourses to the German 
Nation, in which he declared without hesitation Pesta- 
lozzi's method to be the only one suitable to serve as 
basis of a truly national education.^ 

These warnings were to obtain all the more favour- 
able a hearing, from the fact that the men who then 
directed public education in Prussia — Nicolovius, 
Suvern, and some of their colleagues — already knew 
Pestalozzi either personally, or through his writings, 
or by the reputation of his institute, and had been 
converted to his ideas. Queen Louise herself, who 
was a great admirer of his, took an active part in 
the movement. On the 11th of September, 1808, 
Schroter, the minister to whom the king had just 

i 1 Vide p. 29. 



YVEKDON 67 

intrusted the organisation of national education in 
the Prussian provinces, wrote to Pestalozzi as fol- 
lows: "Entirely convinced of the great value of 
the method of education invented and so happily 
applied by you, I have resolved to proceed to a 
complete reform of education in the Prussian prov- 
inces, founded on the introduction of this method in 
the primary schools, from which I expect the greatest 
benefit for the culture of the people." A.nd he an- 
nounced to him his intention of sending two young 
men at once to Yverdon, to " draw at the source 
itself for the spirit of the whole method of education 
and instruction," to be initiated in the method " under 
the guidance of its venerable originator," and not only 
to " learn the different isolated parts, but also to grasp 
the whole in its various relations and its most intimate 
connections." As soon as Pestalozzi had answered 
and given his opinion on the choice of these young 
men, a cabinet order appointed three men — Preuss, 
Kawerau, and Hemming, who was then at Basle — 
to go as boarders to Yverdon and " be trained 
there to teach in the Prussian States." A yearly 
sum of three hundred and fifty thalers was allotted 
to each. 

The three pupil teachers arrived at Yverdon in the 
course of May, 1809, followed by a fourth in Septem- 
ber, and soon there came from all parts of Germany 
a host of young men whose patriotism impelled them 
to the teaching profession. Pestalozzi's joy may be 
easily imagined, and his eager desire to fulfil all ex- 
pectations, and the superhuman work he imposed on 
himself to satisfy all the demands of his visitors. 
He rose at two o'clock in the morning in order to 



C8 PESTALOZZrS LIFE 

devote himself to his literary work, and exacted the 
same zeal from his colleagues, and still more from 
the teachers whose training he had undertaken. He 
made these too take their share of the housework, 
which was divided among the inmates. They had 
to chop firewood, light the lires, and copy manuscript, 
when they were not occupied in teaching. "There 
were years," Ramsauer tells us, "when not one of us 
would have been found in bed after three o'clock in 
the morning, and we worked summer and winter from 
three to six o'clock." Blochmann, a master of the 
institute, also tells us that " the pupils rose at five 
o'clock, the masters at four, or even earlier, and that 
for several years the latter had night duty, so that 
one of them was always up to take care of the house 
and wake Pestalozzi at two o'clock, and the others at 
the time he appointed. From six to seven the pupils 
prepared their lessons, then Pestalozzi read prayers in 
the presence of all the inmates of the house, and gen- 
erally also of the girls' school.^ A text from the 
Bible, a canticle of Gellert, or a subject of morality 
furnished him matter for a somewhat lengthy dis- 
course, which he delivered walking up and down — a 
discourse which was often very stimulating and edify- 
ing. After prayers, the pupils washed themselves in 
the courtyard, and in winter the more robust went 
in their shirt-sleeves to the edge of the half -frozen 
canal. (None of the pupils and hardly any of the 
masters wore hats or cravats even in the town.) The 
ablutions finished, they were mustered for review and 
then conducted to breakfast. From eight to twelve 

1 Opened in 1806 at Yverdon, under the management of Kriisi 
and Hopf . 



YVERDON 69 

came school, in which religion, languages, arithmetic, 
and geometry were the chief subjects taught. From 
twelve to one, all, old and young, went to the border 
of the lake to play or bathe. The midday meal was 
short and simple. School began again at two o'clock, 
which was as bad for the masters as for the pupils. 
At four o'clock came recreation on the border of the 
lake again (play, gymnastics, or bathing), then the 
afternoon meal, at which the masters assembled in a 
separate room to talk freely among themselves. From 
five to six the pupils prepared their lessons for the 
following day; then they were again assembled for 
prayers, after that came supper, and at nine all the 
pupils went to bed. Each of the masters had the 
supervision of forty pupils one day in three, and be- 
sides every upper master had the special charge of a 
certain number of pupils whom he took once a week 
to Pestalozzi, after having handed him reports on 
their work, progress, and conduct. Pestalozzi gener- 
ally received them in bed, and the manner in which 
he praised those who had deserved it, and reprimanded 
those who had been forgetful of their duty, was as 
original, as it was effective with the children, and in- 
structive to us. Saturday, at nine o'clock, the masters' 
meeting took place, at which each child was discussed 
and questions of discipline handled. On other days, 
at the same hour, educational conferences were held, 
at which Pestalozzi was not present ; only on extraordi- 
nary occasions we met in his room. Then he was some- 
times humorous and pleasant, sometimes passionate, 
and sometimes even became so violent that he rushed 
out of the room, banging the door after him ; but 
then at the sight of some child's happy, peaceful face 



70 PESTALOZZrS LIFE 

he soon recovered his temper, became pleasant again, 
and scolded himself for having been so violent." ^ 

We have also extremely interesting accounts of 
Pestalozzi and of the inner life of the institute from 
okl pupils. The first of these is the Vaud historian, 
Vulliemin, who relates as follows : — 

'' I was eight years old when I entered the Pestalozzi 
institute. Picture to yourselves, children, a very ugly 
man, with hair sticking up all over his head, his face 
deeply pitted by smallpox and covered with red spots, 
his beard ragged and in disorder, no cravat, trousers 
half unbuttoned, falling in folds over wrinkled stock- 
ings, which also fell over enormous slippers ; his walk 
hurried and jerky; then eyes which sometimes ex- 
panded as they darted forth lightning, sometimes 
shut, to lend themselves to inner contemplation ; fea- 
tures which sometimes expressed deep sadness, some- 
times happiness full of benignity ; a voice, which spoke 
now slowly, now precipitately, and was now tender and 
melodious, now loud as thunder : such was he whom 
we used to call Father Pestalozzi. 

"Although he was just as I have here described 
him, we all loved him, for he loved us all ; we loved 
him so dearly, that when we had not seen him for 
some time, we were quite sad, and once he appeared 
we could not turn our eyes away from him. 

" We knew that at the time when the wars of the 
Helvetian Revolution had multiplied the number of 
poor and orphan children, he had gathered together a 
great many round him, and had devoted himself to 
them ; that he was the friend of the unfortunate, of 
little ones, of all children. 

1 Heinrich Pestalozzi, pp. 118-119. 



YVERDON 71 

"My fellow-citizens at Yverdon, the town where I 
was born, had generously put at his disposal the old 
castle founded by ' Little Charlemagne,' ^ the long 
halls of which surrounded vast courtyards, and gave 
plenty of room for playgrounds, as well as class 
rooms, for a numerous family. There were from a 
hundred and fifty to two hundred of us young peo- 
ple, of all nationalities, enclosed in these walls, where 
we by turns studied and gave ourselves up to merry 
frolics. It often happened that our game at pris- 
oners' base, begun in the castle courtyard, was fin- 
ished on the grassy swards which are bounded by 
the promenade Derrih'e le Lac. In winter we made a 
mighty snow fortress, which some attacked and others 
heroically defended. None of us were ever ill, or 
very rarely. 

" Every morning early we came, one after the other, 
to have a cold water douche. We always went bare- 
headed. One winter day, however, when the cold, 
bleak wind, not that to which the Greeks gave the 
pretty name of Boreas, but the icy blast which swept 
over the square at Yverdon, made all flee before it, 
my father taking pity on me, put a hat on my head. 
Unlucky article of attire, my schoolfellows had hardly 
caught sight of it than a cry was raised, a hat! a 
hat ! one hand soon knocked it off my head, a hundred 
others sent it flying through the air, into the court- 
yard, into the corridors, then into the attic, and finally 
a last blow sent it through a window, and into the 
river which washes one of the castle walls. I never saw 
it again; it went to relate my misadventure to the 
lake. 

1 Surname of Count Pierre of Savoy (1203-1268). 



72 PESTALOZZrS LIFE 

" Our teachers were for the most part still young 
men, some had been made orphans by the revolutionary 
age in which they lived, and were the first who had 
grown up under the eye of Pestalozzi, their father and 
ours ; some, too, were men of letters, learned men who 
had come to share his task. On the whole, there was 
very little learning. I had heard Pestalozzi boast at 
an advanced age that he had read nothing for forty 
years. His first pupils, our masters, read as little as 
he did. Their teaching was addressed to the intelli- 
gence rather than the memory, and its aim was the 
harmonious cultivation of germs placed in us by 
Providence. ' Strive always,' Pestalozzi continually 
repeated, 'to educate the child, not to teach him 
tricks, as one teaches a dog tricks ; for that is what 
education in ordinary schools often amounts to.' Our 
studies were confined chiefly to number, form, and 
language. 

" Language was taught us by the help of sense-per- 
ception ; we were taught to see, and in consequence to 
form correct ideas on the relations of things ; we had 
no difficulty in expressing ourselves clearly on what 
we thoroughly understood. 

" The first elements of geography were taught us in 
the open country. We were taken in our daily outing 
to a narrow walk in the neighbourhood of Yverdon, by 
the side of which the Buron flows. We were made to 
study it as a whole, and in all its details, until we 
had a correct and full perception of it. Then we were 
told to supply ourselves with clay, of which there were 
large deposits on one side of the valley, and we filled 
big baskets, which we had brought with us for this 
purpose. When we had got back to the castle, we sat 



YVERDON 73 

down to long tables, and each one of us reproduced in 
relief the part which had been assigned to him of the 
valley which we had studied. The next day we went 
again to the valley, made new explorations, this time 
from a higher elevation than before, and each time 
added to our work. We continued in this way until 
we had finished the study of the river-basin at Yver- 
don, of which we gained a bird's-eye view from the top 
of the Montela, which overlooks the whole, and had 
also finished our model. Then, and not till then, we 
passed from the model to the map, which we did not 
look at until we had gained an insight into its meaning. 

"We were made to invent geometry, the masters 
contenting themselves with pointing out the end to 
attain, and putting us on the road to it. Arithmetic 
was taught in the same way. Our sums were done in 
our head and vivd voce without the help of paper. 
Some of us had gained a surprising faculty in these 
exercises on mental arithmetic, and as quackery gains 
ground everywhere, we were the only ones who were 
exhibited to the numerous strangers attracted daily to 
Yverdon by Pestalozzi's fame. We were told over and 
over again that a great work was being carried on in 
our midst, that the eyes of the world were on us, and 
we had no difficulty in believing what we were told. 

" What was so emphatically called Pestalozzi's 
metJiod was, it is true, an enigma to us. So it was to 
our teachers. Like the disciples of Socrates, every 
one of them interpreted the master's doctrines in his 
own fashion ; but we were far from the times when 
these divergencies created discord, when our chief 
masters, after having each one of them laid claim to 
be the only one who really understood Pestalozzi, 



74 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

ended by declaring that Pestalozzi did not really 
understand himself ; that he had only come to be what 
he was — Schmid said by Schmid's help, Niederer 
by Niederer's. At the time when I first frolicked 
among these walls, inhabited by healthy and vigorous 
boys, scenes similar to those which Moliere delighted 
his audience with, when he put the professors in the 
Bourgeois Gentilhomme on the stage, — scenes which 
were to bring about the ruin of the establishment, — 
had not taken place. All the members of Pestalozzi's 
large family were now knit together by their faith in 
him. Not but what he was then, as he was later on, 
an inefficient manager. He had no idea of order, tact, 
or skill in ruling men. In his childish simplicity, he 
had no place in his heart for mistrust, he believed 
in no evil, and, easy as he was to deceive, was bound 
sooner or later to be hoodwinked right and left ; but 
at the time of which I speak he still had power over 
the hearts and wills of all. One incident will show 
you the spirit which prevailed in those early days. 

" These teachers, who later on made the welkin ring 
with their quarrels, received no fixed salary. Their 
daily needs were supplied, and they asked for nothing 
beyond this. The box in which the pupils' fees were 
placed was kept in the room of the father of the fam- 
ily, and each one of our masters had a key to it. Did 
he want a coat or a pair of shoes ? he opened the box 
and took according to his necessities. Things went on 
like that for nearly a year, without anything very 
wrong taking place. One would have thought oneself 
among the early Christians." ^ 

1 VuJliemin, Souvenirs racont^s a ses petits-enfants (Guillaume, 
pp. 225 et 229). 



YVERDON 75 

Here again is the account of another Vaud pupil, 
quoted by Mile. Chavannes in her biography of Pesta- 
lozzi : — 

" I entered the Yverdon institute when I was about 
seven years and a half, in June, 1808; and I only 
remained there nine months. It was the most brill- 
iant period in the history of the institute. There 
were one hundred and thirty-seven pupils, not only 
Swiss, Germans, and French, but also Spaniards, Ital- 
ians, Kussians, and even Americans. The teaching of 
mathematics was carried so far that boys of twelve 
did in their head such sums as these, — how many 
times is | contained in 2J ? 44 x 1 J a; = 60, find x. 
On the other hand, religious feeling, and above all 
Christian faith, were far less cultivated ; thus I had a 
great many lessons in mental arithmetic and German, 
but I do not remember that we were ever made to read 
the Bible, or learn any of it by heart. Pestalozzi 
delivered a religious discourse every morning, walking 
up and down the big hall among the assembled mas- 
ters and pupils ; but as it was all in German, and the 
good old man's pronunciation was very indistinct, I 
gained no benefit from it. . . . As > regards bodily 
needs, the food and the cleanliness left very much to 
be desired. In spite of that, although I suffered very 
much in the beginning, far from Vevey and my kind 
parents, I gradually got used to things, and I became 
all the more attached to my devoted masters, because 
they shared in all the games and because, by an excess 
of freedom, the pupils were allowed to say ' thou ' to 
them.^ I was above all most heartily attached to their 

1 " Thou " in most European countries is used to relatives, chil- 
dren, and intimate friends, "you" to everybody else. 



•76 PESTALOZZrS LIFE 

excellent head-master, Pestalozzi. I still see before 
me the good old man, v/ith his short breeches negli- 
gently braced, his stockings falling over his shoes, his 
shirt, his dishevelled hair and beard, but casting such 
beaming and tender looks from his eyes that every 
one was attracted to him ; all — men, women, and chil- 
dren — were glad to get his affectionate embrace. I 
must also add in praise of this excellent man, that if 
he did not develop in me the fear of God and faith in 
the Saviour, I learnt from him to do my work as a 
pupil from a sense of duty, rather than with the help 
of the dangerous stimulus of rewards and praise." ^ 

This is the account given us by M. de Guimps, who 
was a pupil at the institute from 1808 to 1817: 
" The pupils enjoyed great liberty : the two gates of 
the castles were open all day, and there was no gate- 
keeper ; one could come and go as one chose, as in a 
simple family, and the children never abused this 
liberty. There were generally ten lesson-hours a day, 
from six in the morning until eight o'clock at night ; 
but each lesson only lasted an hour, and was followed 
by a short interval during which we generally changed 
rooms. Besides, some of these lessons consisted of 
gymnastics or manual labour, such as pasteboard 
modelling or gardening. The last hour of the day, 
from seven to eight o'clock, was devoted to free work ; 
the children said they worked for themselves and could 
draw or learn geography, write to their parents, or 
put their exercise books in order, just as they felt 
inclined. 

" The youngest masters, who were, as a rule, pupils 

iMlle. Chavannes, Biographie de H. Pestalozzi, 1853, pp. 141-143 
(quoted by Guillaume, p. 229). 



YVERDON 77 

from Berthoud (Burgdorf), had entire charge of the 
supervision out of lesson hours; tliey slept in the 
dormitories, played with the pupils in recreation 
hours, and enjoyed the games as much as the pupils 
did; they accompanied them to the garden, to the 
bathing, to the promenade, and were much liked; 
they were the ones whom the pupils called ^thou.' 
They were divided into groups, and were on duty all 
day one day m three, for this supervision occupied 
them from morning till evening. 

"Three times a week the masters handed in the 
reports on the conduct and work of the pupils to 
Pestalozzi. The boys were called in five or six at 'a 
time to the old man to receive his remonstrances and 
his exhortations. Pestalozzi took them one after 
another into the corner of his room and whispered 
with them : he asked if the boy had nothing to tell 
him, to ask of him ; he tried thus to gain his confi- 
dence, to know how he was, what he liked and what 
he disliked. Every Saturday the work of the week 
was passed in review at a general meeting. 

'• The faithful Lisbeth, Mme. Kriisi, who had fol- 
lowed her master to Yverdon as housekeeper, had 
brought with her the domestic and culinary customs 
of the German Swiss, and those who came from 
French-speaking districts had much difficulty in get- 
ting accustomed to this order of things, which was 
of a somewhat primitive simplicity. The food was at 
least good and wholesome in material if not in the 
preparation, and there was plenty of it, and the meals 
were numerous in accordance with the demands of 
German stomachs. 

" At seven o'clock, at the end of the first lesson, the 



78 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

pupils went to perform their ablutions in the court- 
yard; the water pumped up from the well flowed 
through a long pipe with holes bored in it at both 
sides, so that each child got his dash of pure, cold 
water ; jugs and basins were unknown. The toilet 
completed, they breakfasted off porridge. At eight 
o'clock lessons began again. At ten o'clock there 
was a pause, during which those who were hungry 
went to Mme. Kriisi for bread and dried fruits. At 
twelve, an hour's recreation, bathing, or a game at 
prisoner's base on the grass at Derrih'e le Lac, etc. ; 
at one o'clock, dinner of soup, meat, and vegetables ; 
at half-past one, lessons until half-past four. Then 
came the afternoon meal ; sometimes a slice of cheese 
as big as one's hand, sometimes enormous slices of 
bread, covered with a thick layer of butter. The 
pupils came up in single file and carried off their 
bread and butter to eat it where they liked during the 
recreation, which lasted until six o'clock. Sometimes 
the boys spent their recreation at Derri^re le Lac, 
sometimes in the large garden belonging to the 
castle, where every child had his own little plot to 
cultivate. Erom six to eight came more lessons, then 
supper, which was the same as dinner. 

"When we consider the material conditions of the 
life which the masters at the Yverdon institute led, 
we cannot doubt their devotion to Pestalozzi and his 
work, nor the nobility of the sentiments which had 
attracted and now kept them faithful to him. We 
have said what the food was like, the furniture was 
still more primitive; some of the older masters lived 
out of the castle ; but all the others, in the midst of 
this swarm, had not a room of their own to which 



YVERDON 79 

they could retire; when they needed a retreat for 
quiet work, they constructed little plank studies in 
the upper stories, or settled down in the round 
towers which rise at the four corners of the old build- 
ing. 

"M. and Mme. Pestalozzi occupied a room on the 
second floor of the north side ; they often invited some 
masters to drink coffee with them ; often, too, they held 
evening receptions to which some pupils were ad- 
mitted, and invited the town inhabitants or strangers 
passing through. Mme. Pestalozzi did the honours 
with a kind, nay touching, goodness. Although she 
had never regained her health after the disasters at 
Neuhof, she had kept all her freshness of imagination 
and a kind of poetry of the heart which made her the 
centre of most agreeable conversation. 

" As to Pestalozzi himself, he accosted every one 
with the most tender benevolence ; his conversation 
was lively, intellectual, full of imagination and original- 
ity, but difficult to follow on account of his bad pro- 
nunciation. But he was very variable; in a moment 
he v/ould pass from a frank and expansive gayety to a 
meditative and concentrated sadness. . Habitually ab- 
sent-minded, preoccupied, a prey to feverish agitation, 
he could never sit still ; he walked about the corridors 
of the castle, one hand behind his back or under his 
coat, the other holding the end of his cravat between 
his teeth. Every day he came in like that to the les- 
sons ; then, if the teaching pleased him, he grew radi- 
ant, he caressed the children and talked smilingly to 
them ; but if the master's proceedings did not please 
him, he went out at once in a rage, and banged the 
door after him. 



80 PESTALOZZrS LIFE 

"He continued to work at the perfecting oi his 
method and new applications of it with indefatigable 
zeal ; every morning he had an under-master, generally 
Ramsauer, called to his bed to write at his dictation. 
But he was seldom content with his own work ; it was 
corrected again and again, and often begun afresh. 

" When the season permitted, several hours in the 
afternoon were devoted every week to military exer- 
cises. The pupils formed a little battalion, with flag, 
drum, band, and arsenal ; they became skilled in the 
most complicated manoeuvres. When they proceeded 
to exercises in shooting, the non-commissioned officers 
were occupied in making cartridges under the direction 
of the chief instructor. From time to time they had 
sham fights in a place chosen some miles from the 
town. Sometimes, too, they practised shooting at a 
target ; the conqueror was rewarded with a sheex) and 
its lamb, and the use of a little stall in the garden. 

" Gymnastics were practised, and games at prisoner's 
base, etc., were played regularly. In winter the boys 
skated as well, and in summer bathed in the lake, and 
took long mountain walks. 

"It will be remembered that manual labour was 
in Pestalozzi's programme ; it was often tried in the 
institute, but was never continued in a regular fashion. 
The great number and the diversity of the pupils and 
of the occupations was probably the obstacle which 
was insurmountable. The gardening succeeded the 
best; sometimes the pupils had their little plots to 
cultivate ; sometimes they were sent by turns, two and 
two, to work for some hours under the direction of the 
gardener. The children often succeeded pretty well 
in bookbinding and pasteboard modelling; they con- 



YVERDON 81 

structed solid figures with it for the better understand- 
ing of geometry. But their skill and their cleverness 
were specially exercised in the decorations for festivals. 

" New Year's Day was celebrated by a speech from 
Pestalozzi, and a religious ceremony, followed by the 
distribution of presents from the parents, and a grand 
dinner ; in the evening there was a torchlight proces- 
sion (every pupil made his own torch), then came a 
ball at which the girls from the institute appeared, and 
also guests from the town. Between New Year and 
the 12th of January there were few lessons ; everybody 
was busied with the preparations for the festival of the 
12th, Pestalozzi's birthday. On that occasion, the pu- 
pils of every class decorated their room, turning it more 
or less into a grove, with cottage, chapel, ruin, and some- 
times even a waterfall or fountain. They took long 
walks in the neighbouring woods to look for fir trees, 
ivy, and moss. They prepared transparencies with em- 
blems and inscriptions. Often too, on that day, the 
pupils gave some dramatic performance, the subject of 
which was generally taken from the heroic deeds of 
Swiss history in the Middle Ages; they made their 
costumes themselves of cardboard and coloured paper, 
likewise their cuirasses, helmets, etc. On Christmas 
Eve there was the traditional German Christmas tree, 
a fir tree with apples, gilt nuts, etc., illuminated by 
many candles, in the middle of the prayer room. 

"Singing played a great part in Pestalozzi's insti- 
tute, and was the delight of nearly all the inhabitants 
of the house; everybody sang there, all day and every- 
where. The two Swiss masters, Pfeiffer and Nageli, 
had seconded Pestalozzi's desires in this respect, by 
publishing charming collections of songs for the young. 



82 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

Germany is rich in sweet melodies and simple poems, 
appropriate to the needs and character of childhood. 
They taught us some French songs too, but that was a 
poor and unsatisfactory source. In spite of some 
praiseworthy efforts, France has not yet risen above 
this inferiority." ^ 

Finally we will add Pestalozzi's portrait as sketched 
by Toerlitz, one of the two teachers sent to Yverdon by 
the government of Denmark, in his account of his stay 
at the institute : " Pestalozzi is as ugly as a man can 
possibly be. His clothes are re]3ulsively dirty, and his 
shoes have not been blacked since they left the shoe- 
maker's hands. He never combs his hair, and he only 
sends for the barber on Fridays. His stockings, as a 
rule, fall down over his shoes. When he gives himself 
up to work, he goes to bed with his clothes on and dic- 
tates. Then his ideas are put on paper in just as odd 
a manner as they float about in his mind. ..." 

As we have devoted a special chapter to the influ- 
ence which Pestalozzi's doctrines had on the education 
of foreign countries, which dates from this time, we 
shall confine ourselves to finishing his biography 
properly so-called, by contenting ourselves with relat- 
ing briefly the facts relative to the history of the 
institute at Yverdon. 

The enormous wealth of the pupils sent to Yverdon 
by parents who did not trouble themselves at all about 
the idea of elementary education but who merely wanted 
to have their children pushed on as fast as possible, 
and the mixture of French and German pupils, had 
obliged Pestalozzi to follow a very different path to 
the one he had traced for himself. He had to do with 

1 M. de Guimps, Histoire de Pestalozzi, pp. 332-340. 



YVERDON 83 

an exacting public, and the reports be published for 
their benefit, which contrast singularly with the devel- 
opment of his idea contained in his previous works, 
especially in How Gertrude teaches her Children, bear 
witness to his anxiety to please, as far as his some- 
what indifferent staff permitted. They had to work, 
as Pestalozzi says, " for show." " It seemed that the 
idea of elementary education, originally trumpeted 
forth with such magniloquence and prolixity, had com- 
pletely disappeared from our midst." ^ 

This contradiction must also be attributed to the 
influence of ISTiederer, one of the chief masters of the 
establishment, who, by his lively intelligence, his per- 
spicuity, and his university education, exercised a great 
ascendency over Pestalozzi and played a prominent 
part in the institute. Niederer not only had charge 
of the religious instruction in the upper classes, but 
also gave lectures on the method and assisted in the 
literary work. But abandoning himself to his ideal- 
istic tendencies, he soon went his own way, and, as 
Pestalozzi remarks, "created his own system on the 
idea of elementary education," and obtained thus great 
influence over the minds of all the masters, and gained 
Pestalozzi's entire confidence.^ And Pestalozzi con- 
fesses naively, " I no longer understand myself ; if 
you want to know what I think and what I wish, go 
and ask ISTiederer." The contrast between these two 
men, however, was too great for the illusion to be of 
long duration. 

Among those of Pestalozzi's colleagues who consid- 
ered that they ought to counteract Niederer's tenden- 

1 Meine Lebensschicksale als Vorsteher meiner Erziehungsinsti- 
tut in Burgdorf und Iferten, 1826. 2 ijjid., p. 30. 



84 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

cies and his invading influence, we must especially 
mention Joseph Schmid, an old pupil whom Pestalozzi 
had persuaded to stay on as teacher. He was an essen- 
tially practical man and at the same time a teacher of 
no mean power. No character could be conceived 
more diametrically opposed to that of Niederer. He, 
too, justly gained a great influence in the institute, 
which could not fail to displease Niederer. Pesta- 
lozzi showed " a little too soon and too imprudently," 
as he says, his preference for this young teacher, in 
whom he already saw " the chief supporter of the 
house," and to whom he gave all his confidence. But 
that highly displeased Niederer. There were as a mat- 
ter of fact germs of discord, which were not long 
in coming up ; for Pestalozzi had not the necessary 
firmness to root them out at the beginning. He ex- 
presses his distress on this subject in his New Year's 
Speech, 1808, wlAch he made before his coffin, as was 
his custom when he considered it advisable to work 
upon the feelings of his hearers. ^ " I am not happy. 
The ice broke under my feet every time I tried to get 
a firm foothold. . . . The bond which unites us all 
has shown itself loose at places where it ought to 
be closest. I have seen corruption spread where I 
thought salvation reposed on a deep foundation. . . . 
I have seen love grow cold just when I thought it 
blazed up to the greatest heat, confidence disappear 
just when I needed it most as the breath of my life." 

1 Pestalozzi had had a coffin made in 1806 with a death's head on 
it, and generally kept it under his bed. On solemn occasions he 
had it put in the middle of the room, saying: " Do you see me in 
this coffin ? How do you feel at the sight ? " (Ramsauer, Memora- 
bilien, 1846, p. 65.) 



YVERDON 85 

And after accusing himself of being the cause of all 
the evil, he concludes: "Behold my coffin. That is 
my salvation." 

The same year four masters — Tobler, Hopf, Bar- 
roud, and Steiner — left the institute. Niederer, more 
and more irritated at the importance which Pestalozzi 
attached to Schmid, also wanted to leave with Kriisi, 
but Pestalozzi succeeded in persuading him to stay. 
Froebel/ who had already visited the institute in 1805, 
came back in 1808 with his pupils, the sons of Herr von 
Holzhausen, of Frankfort, and spent two years there. 

Meanwhile attacks began to be made on the estab- 
lishment from all sides, especially in the Swiss news- 
papers. At the instigation, as it seems, of Niederer, 
but certainly against the advice of Schmid, who knew 
the weak points of the institute, Pestalozzi addressed 
himself to the Helvetian Diet, on the 20th of June, 
1809, to ask " that it would deign to give a public mark 
of attention either to the institute at Yverdon, or to 
the method of elementary education there in use, 
which having obtained the suffrages of several States 
and of a great number of learned and highly respected 
men, now attracts the attention of all Europe." 

The Diet acceded to his request and confided the 
inspection of the institute to a commission composed 
of three members, — Merian, member of the petty coun- 
cil of the canton of Basle, Trechsel, professor of 
mathematics at Berne, and Father Girard, director of 
the schools at Freiburg.^ 

1 Vide H. Courthope Bowen, Froehel and Education through 
Self-activity, New York, 1897. 

2 Report of the Sittings of the Diet, June 22, 1809 (Guillaume, 
p. 268). 



86 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

The commission arrived at Yverdon, in November, 
1809, and after a five days' visit commissioned Father 
Girard to draw up a report. While doing justice to 
the efforts of Pestalozzi and his colleagues, Father 
Girard did not spare them in his criticism. Niederer 
had desired to confine the examination solely to the 
doctrines of the Pestalozzi school, but Father Girard 
refused, saying with much good sense : " The specu- 
lative part was not our business. We had to ex- 
amine what was actually being done, not what was 
aimed at. Perhaps a more profound and subtle phi- 
losophy than ours will find a kind of lowness in our 
report. Our ideas will not be noble enough, and we 
shall have used too vulgar a form of speech. In this 
case, we should venture to observe that expressions do 
not make things, and that all the sublimity of meta- 
physics often only consists in saying things which 
every one knows, in words which nobody can under- 
stand." 

As to the originality of the principles on which the 
education at Yverdon was based, he says : " The great 
maxims on which the institute at Yverdon is grounded 
are most undoubtedly the invariable maxims of good- 
ness and beneficence. But is Pestalozzi the inventor 
of these principles ? He himself has no such high 
opinion of himself. He by no means considers him- 
self the creator of his art ; but he is proud to be the 
disciple of it. ^ We do not lay claim to the honour of 
the invention,' he said to us once in the midst of his 
children, 'but we try to put in practice what com- 
mon sense taught men thousands of years ago.' We 
see from these words that Pestalozzi traces the birth 
of the art which he professes very far back indeed. 



YVERDON 87 

He attributes it to common sense, wliicli is old, and 
not to science, whicli is new, and he sees it every- 
where where men exist. We may abide by this 
declaration, which does honour to the master's mod- 
esty, while it puts to confusion the vanity of some of 
his disciples. Undoubtedly exaggerated praise, with- 
out rhyme or reason, an exclusive and disdainful at- 
titude, cannot be profitable to education. Its best 
interests demand equity and tranquillity. Of what 
consequence, after all, is the invention when we have 
only to consider the thing and its utility ? The prin- 
ciples of education decidedly belong to good sense, 
and if we sometimes pause to comment on the worthy 
old man's words, we do not dream of proving a truth 
that has no need of proofs. It will be a homage that 
we pay to the common light which sheds its rays 
on all men, and a kind of reparation that it perhaps 
has a right to expect from us under these circum- 
stances." 

In the application of the method to the various 
branches of instruction. Father Girard finds nothing 
very new, except in the teaching of drawing and 
singing. 

In answer to the question whether the institute 
could serve as a model to primary schools. Father 
Girard answers, "If it were simply a question of 
general rules, which one willingly calls by the name 
of Pestalozzi's method, although this term has not 
as yet a very definite meaning, it is evident that this 
method and these rules must animate all our institu- 
tions." But he does not find that the means employed 
can be imitated. " We regret to find that there are so 
few parts which can be used as they are. We always 



88 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

come back to the same results, — the studies at Yver- 
don connect themselves only very imperfectly with 
public instruction. . . . The institute goes its way; 
our teachers go theirs, and there is no likelihood that 
they will ever meet." And in conclusion : " We must 
always regret that Pestalozzi should have been dragged 
out of the modest career he chose for himself with so 
much zeal and devotion. This primary school, model 
for all the others, will only be a thought in his uneasy 
and toilsome life — a beautiful thought, doubtless, 
which will do honour to his heart, and make his 
memory live. Let us render justice to his intentions, 
to his efforts, to his perseverance; let us profit by 
these useful ideas, let us benefit by the examples held 
up to us ; and let us pity the destiny of a man who, 
baffled perpetually by circumstances, has never been 
able to do exactly what his soul desired." 

The report gives us also most interesting details as 
to the condition and progress of the institute. For 
instance, it tells us that there were then at Yverdon 
one hundred and sixty-five pupils, of whom one hun- 
dred and thirty-seven were boarders. Eighty-seven 
of the pupils were foreigners. There were besides 
thirty-two pupil-teachers, of whom all were foreigners 
except five. " The greater number of these lived in 
the town and were utterly independent of the insti- 
tute. . . . The pupils of this category were classed 
as foreigners learning the method; this name is very 
appropriate, because one would be wrong to picture to 
oneself a training college for teachers, such as those 
which exist elsewhere." The school for girls, lodged 
in a house in the vicinity of the castle, was still, so 
to speak, in its cradle, and numbered a dozen pupil- 



YVERDON 89 

teachers; "here we find on a small scale a training 
college for women-teachers." 

To revert to the boys' school: "Every branch of 
instruction has a certain number of professors, each 
one of whom takes a certain part of the subject in 
question and takes up the thread where his prede- 
cessor broke off. These professors form a special 
committee, which meets once a week to exchange the 
experiences and reflections which have been caused 
by the teaching, for the benefit of all and for the 
teaching as a whole. Besides the instruction depart- 
ment there are two others, one for discipline and the 
other for religion. The masters in charge of the one 
collect the reports of the masters who have had super- 
vision duty, and decide on the question of the breaches 
against the rules. The masters in charge of the other, 
which is higher and more important, watch over the 
moral and religious conduct of the pupils ; they con- 
sider the characters of the pupils, their vices and 
bad habits, and meditate on measures to prevent or 
remove these. Pestalozzi is present at the meetings 
of these committees, and is the guiding spirit and the 
soul of them. At the end of each week there is a 
general meeting, the resolutions of which have the 
force of law. There is no regard of persons there, 
each one has the rank which his enlightenment, his 
activity, and the confidence which he inspires in his 
colleagues assign him. Whoever has anything to 
propose, has the right to speak. The head himself 
is so little jealous of the preeminence which is his due 
by right of his character, his age, and his name, that 
on ceremonious occasions, if he takes part in them at 
all, he makes over tp one of his friends the charge of 



90 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

presiding over the assembly. The Board of Manage- 
ment has an office, the members of which have an 
onerous task. This is twofold : one part, literary and 
scientific; the other, the correspondence with the 
pupils' parents. The latter keep registers, in which 
detailed reports as to the progress and character of 
each child are entered, and extracts from these are 
afterward sent home to the children's families. The 
literary side corresponds with foreign teachers and 
the public; it edits the periodical works which are 
printed in Switzerland and Germany, and inserts 
articles in learned reviews. Pestalozzi presides over 
this extensive work and shares with his friends a 
task which he could not manage alone." ^ 

This report, communicated in manuscript form to 
Pestalozzi in the spring of 1810, called forth great 
discontent among the staff of the institute. Pestalozzi 
declared that " the idea of the elementary education, on 
which he desired an examination, had not been exam- 
ined at all." However that may be, the report was 
sent to the Diet on the 12th of May, 1810, which 
decided that it should be published in French and 
German. There was no further result except that in 
the session of 1811 the Diet expressed to Pestalozzi 
the gratitude of his country. 

Some days before the arrival of the commission at 
Yverdon, the institute had received the visit of Karl 
von Raumer, who later on wrote his History of Peda- 
gogy. Raumer was then about twenty-six years of 
age. He had been filled with enthusiasm by the 
perusal of Fichte's Discourses to the German Nation, 

1 Rapport sur Vinstitut de M. Pestalozzi, quoted by Guillaume, 
pp. 271-277. 



YVERDON 91 

had left Paris, where he was studying science, to come 
and watch the method which, according to the elo- 
quent philosopher, was to regenerate the German 
nation. He has left us some impressions of this visit 
which deserve to be reproduced. 

"We were taken to Pestalozzi. His dress was in 
great disorder, for he wore an old grey coat, no waist- 
coat, short breeches, and stockings which fell in 
wrinkles over his slippers ; his thick, black, wavy hair 
was all tumbled and in disorder; his forehead was 
furrowed with deep wrinkles ; his dark blue eyes 
sometimes wore a gentle and tender expression, some- 
times were full of flames. One hardly noticed his 
ugliness, for his physiognomy was radiant with geni- 
ality ; one read his long sufferings, and at the same 
time his great hopes, in the features of his worn face. 
Soon after we saw Niederer, who made on me the 
impression of a young Koman Catholic priest ; Krlisi, 
somewhat stout, fair, blue-eyed, with a gentle, kindly 
air ; Schmid, more careless in his attire than even 
Pestalozzi, with strongly marked features, and the 
piercing eye of a bird of prey. . . . The interior of 
the castle made a somewhat gloomy impression on 
me; but its situation is splendid; a large meadow 
separates it from the southern end of the fine lake 
of Neufchatel, on the shores of which rise the Jura 
slopes covered with vineyards."^ 

"A few days after my arrival, the commission of 
inspection appointed by the Diet came to Yverdon 
and stayed five days. Those were wretched days for 
Pestalozzi and his masters; they foresaw that the 
commission, which confined itself to results which 

1 Raumer, Geschichte der Pddagogik, 2°"^ ed., Vol. II, p. 423. 



92 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

were really worth noticing, would not draw up an 
enthusiastic report. . . . 

" I had come to learn and to make myself useful. I 
slept in one of the dormitories, I took my meals with 
the children, I was present at the lessons, at morning 
and evening prayers, and at the masters' meetings. 
At the end of some weeks, when I was spending the 
evening with Pestalozzi and the other masters at the 
Hotel du Sauvage, where they met every fortnight, 
Pestalozzi took me aside in the next room. There, 
after some preliminary words, he began to discuss 
certain masters of the institute with a freedom of lan- 
guage that astounded me ; what he said was in utter 
contradiction with the language used in the Report to 
the Parents, but not with what I had been able to 
see for myself. He concluded by proposing that 
my friend (Przystanowski) and I should join with 
Schmid, whose ability and energy he lauded to the 
skies, to inaugurate a radical reform in the institute. 
This proposition was so unexpected that I asked for 
time to consider. I communicated the news to my 
friend, who was as surprised as I was. This state of 
things naturally brought us and Schmid together ; we 
were thus initiated in the arcana imperii; we put our 
heads together to find out what were the obstacles to 
the prosperity of the institute and what the means of 
removing them. 

" The first defect which we proposed to remedy was 
caused by the mixture of German and French pupils ; 
as far as that was concerned, we should have made two 
institutes instead of one. This was, however, not pos- 
sible, principally by reason of external difficulties, 
which, however, could have been removed. Pestalozzi 



YVERDON 93 

later on allowed that we were quite right, as is proved 
by a passage of his Lebensschicksale. Another draw- 
back was the absence of family life, at any rate, for 
the youngest pupils, those from six to ten years of 
age; I suggested to Pestalozzi to take a nice house 
some distance from the town for them, and then they 
could lead a life more approaching that in their own 
homes. But this proposal was also rejected. As may 
be supposed, the occasion was seized to hold a long 
discourse on the weak side of the institute, the absence 
of family life, and the impossibility of helping it. 
We then made a third proposition. As it seemed to 
us impossible that Pestalozzi's ideas could be realised 
at Yverdon under the actually existing circumstances, 
we suggested that he should found the institute for 
the poor in Argovie, which had been so long promised, 
and offered him our help for this purpose. He would 
not, however, consent. I then considered it my duty, 
in the interest of the child confided to my care, to 
leave the institute. I have no intention of justifying 
my attitude under these circumstances at the expense 
of others ; I will only add a word of explanation. At 
this time, Schmid and Niederer, so different with 
regard to talents, characters, and inclinations, were 
already in complete opposition ; with the best will in 
the world, it was impossible to effect a reconciliation 
between them; one had to take sides with the one 
or other of them. Pestalozzi himself sided with 
Schmid, whose resolute and indefatigable energy was 
sufficient guarantee that he would be an active helper 
in any reforms. I was thus, without any intention of 
my own, in opposition to Niederer. Although I could 
not share his opinions on many points, I ought to have 



94 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

done justice to his enthusiasm and his self-sacrificing 
spirit. I was attracted by Kriisi's gentleness ; but he, 
too, was against Schmid. My attitude as silent ob- 
server displeased the youngest masters ; can I bear 
them ill-will on that account ? I ought to have appre- 
ciated the sincere, enthusiastic, indefatigable zeal of 
many of them, E-amsauer, for instance, even when 
their teaching did not show anything new ; but, mis- 
led by the Report, I had expected to find something 
new everywhere. In spite of all the imperfections, I 
should, nevertheless, certainly have stayed longer at 
Yverdon, and I should have worked there in patient 
and persevering hope, if I had not considered it my 
duty to remove the child who was intrusted to me. I 
left Yverdon, then, in May, 1810. Soon after, the con- 
flict, long in abeyance, burst out openly in passionate 
hostilities." ^ 

The publication of the report of the board of inspec- 
tion likewise gave rise to excited polemics which 
lasted three years, and could not fail to injure the 
institute. The important publication known under 
the name of the Gottengische Gelehrte Anzeigen was 
particularly aggressive, and accused the Yverdon insti- 
tute of bringing the pupils up in ideas contrary to 
religion, hostile to authority and to the aristocracy 
(April 13, 1810). This unjust attack provoked a vig- 
orous reply from Niederer, TJie Pestalozzi histitute to 
the Public,^ which only gave fresh life to the dis- 
cussion. 

At this time Schmid proposed to reorganise the 
institute and restore to it its original character of 

1 Raumer, Geschichte der Pddagogik, 2nd ed., Vol. II, pp. 435-443. 

2 Das Pestalozzische Institut an das Publikum, 



YVERDON 95 

primary school, which it had completely lost; but 
Pestalozzi could not make up his mind to this. Then 
Schmid, not only on this account, but also for a reason 
" which only concerned himself and Niederer," left the 
house. This was in the course of the summer of 1810. 
This reason was not known for a long time, but was 
disclosed later on in documents published by Morf ; 
to the causes of rivalry which already separated 
Niederer and Schmid was added the presence of a 
young teacher, Luise Segesser, with whom both had 
fallen in love. Fraulein Segesser preferred Niederer, 
and had become engaged to him.^ Schmid's departure 
was a great blow to Pestalozzi. "My heart was torn 
at seeing him leave me, for I loved him as my own 
soul ; but I could do nothing." He also had the grief 
of seeing some of his best colleagues leave in the same 
year, among them Muralt, who had had a post offered 
him in St. Petersburg, Von Ttirk, Mieg, and Hoffmann. 
The others considered Schmid's departure "as a great 
piece of good luck."^ The latter, who had gone to 
Vienna, had published a pamphlet, entitled Educational 
Establishments a Disgrace to Humanity.,^ in which he 
unsparingly depicted the sad state of the institute. 
Some time after he became head-master of the primary 
school at Bregenz. 

Peace was restored to the institute after Schmid's 
departure, but the void he left was never filled. Pesta- 
lozzi had now no other prop but Niederer, to whom he 

1 Morf, IV, 233. This engagement was, however, broken off the 
following year, and in 1814 Niederer became engaged to Fraulein 
Kasthofer. 

2 Meine Lebensschicksale, etc., pp. 53, 54. 

8 Erziehung sanstalten eine Schande der Menschheit. 



% PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

thus addressed himself in his New Year's Speech, 1811 : 
*' Niederer, you who are the first of my sous, what shall 
I say to you ? what shall I wish you ? how shall I 
thank you ? You penetrate the depths of truth, you 
traverse the labyrinths as if you were walking on a 
beaten track ! . . . Friend, you are my helper, my 
house reposes on your heart, your eye flashes forth 
a ray which is its salvation, although my own weak- 
ness dreads it. Niederer, reign over my house like 
a propitious constellation." The same dithyramb is 
to be found in the speech the year following. ''I 
need your strength more than ever for my house 
and for my work. . . . Niederer, my faith in what 
you have is not to be shaken, and my uneasiness as 
to what you have not diminishes with every hour." 

In the course of the summer of 1810, the institute 
received the visit of Jullien, a French officer of high 
rank, inspector of reviews, who was on his way to 
Italy, and came to Yverdon on his way at the request 
of the minister of the interior, De Montalivet. Jullien 
remained two months at the institute, and after his 
arrival in Italy published his observations in a work 
entitled. Spirit of PestalozzVs Method of Education, 
preceded by an introduction published separately 
under the title. Report on the Educatioyial Institute 
at Yverdon (Milan, 1812). The favourable report, 
drawn up by him on what he saw at Yverdon, con- 
tributed to give Pestalozzi's name a great renown 
in France, and attracted a great number of French 
pupils. Some French newspapers reproached Jul- 
lien with having painted the Yverdon institute in 
too glowing colours; he defended himself in a letter 
to Mieg, one of Pestalozzi's colleagues, at the same 



YVERDON 97 

time expressing a wish that the institute might fulfil 
its promises better. 

About this time Pestalozzi had the unfortunate idea 
of starting a printing-office in his castle. This was to 
continue the discussion provoked by the report of the 
commission of inspection. To this was added a book- 
seller's shop, which was, to use his own expression, 
"more a wasting and giving away than a selling of 
books. " ^ It was certainly a most disastrous under- 
taking, and as a consequence, he had to appeal to 
his friend Vogel at Zurich and to Mieg, then at Paris, 
to beg a loan which should help him out of his diffi- 
culties. Vogel could not accede to his request, but 
Mieg went to Yverdon to see what could be done, and 
found a deficit of twenty thousand francs. On his ad- 
vice and that of Vogel, Pestalozzi came to an arrange- 
ment, dated the 15th of November, 1813, which consisted 
chiefly in getting his wife to advance him six thousand 
francs, and in making over the school for girls, man- 
aged up to this time by his daughter-in-law, now Frau 
Custer, to a teacher who had had the sqholastic manage- 
ment since 1808, Fraulein Eosette Kasthofer. Praulein 
Kasthofer married Niederer in the January following. 

In consequence of this arrangement, Pestalozzi's 
wife and Frau Custer went to Neuhof in April, 
1814, accompanied by the faithful Lisabeth, the 
housekeeper of the institute, who had been dis- 
missed, so that Pestalozzi remained alone with Nie- 
derer and his wife, both of whom were as incapable 
as he was of wisely managing the establishment. 
The situation, far from improving, became more and 
more critical, the more so as the young foreign pupil- 

1 Meine Lehensschicksale, p. 65. 



98 PESTALOZZrS LIFE 

teachers had almost all left, and their places had not 
been filled. Happily Jullien, who had confided his 
three sons to Pestalozzi's care, resolved to come to 
his aid, and persuaded him to put the management 
of his undertaking in the hands of a " Board of Eco- 
nomic Administration," composed of notable person- 
ages in Yverdon. This cession took place on the 28th 
of November, 1814, and raised the credit of the estab- 
lishment in the eyes of the public for some time. 

But a grave blow had been struck at the prosperity 
of the institute. Then it was that Schmid, who found 
himself threatened with the loss of his situation at 
Bregenz, as this town had again come under Austrian 
rule, communicated his fears to his friends at Yverdon. 
Immediately Niederer himself wrote, on the 16th of 
December, 1814, to invite him to come back, declaring 
that '• the present state of the institute was completely 
favourable to his return," for the economic difficulties 
had been removed, and from all sides " pupils, Span- 
ish, French, and English, had been announced in suffi- 
cient numbers." He declared besides that he felt 
himself " superior to egotism and ambition." ^ Pesta- 
lozzi and he were " ready to do everything they could 
to induce him to come." Schmid, who had kept on 
good terms with the institute, and had already spent 
some days there in the course of September, 1813, 
answered with enthusiasm that he would be happy 
to come back to Pestalozzi, declaring he, too, felt him- 
self " superior to egotism and ambition," and in accord- 
ance with his promise he returned to the institute at 
Easter, 1815, after having persuaded Pestalozzi to send 
for his family again. 

1 Morf , IV, 399. 



YVERDON 99 

In January, 1814, the Austrian authorities had 
ordered the castle at Yverdon to be turned into a 
military hospital, whereupon the municipality of this 
town sent a deputation to Alexander, the Emperor of 
Russia, then luckily at Basle. The Tsar received the 
deputation, headed by Pestalozzi, most amiably, and 
said, "I know why you have come; reassure your- 
self; you need not say another word; your affair is 
arranged ; you will not be disturbed in your house.'' 
Then he held a long conversation with Pestalozzi, dis- 
cussing what the latter had done and had attempted 
to do, and some months later he sent him the cross 
of the order of St. Vladimir, renewing the assurance 
of his homage and of his sympathy with Pestalozzi's 
efforts.^ 

Some time after, the king of Prussia having come 
to Neufchatel, Pestalozzi wanted, though very ill just 
then, to go and thank him too for the interest which 
he had taken in his work and in the cause of the 
education of the lower classes. 

In the course of the same year the institute received 
the visit of one of Pestalozzi's admirers, the Prussian 
chancellor, Von Bey me, who came accompanied by 
his wife to Yverdon. But his enthusiasm yielded to 
a complete disenchantment when he saw the real 
state of things. ''If this establishment last another 
year," he said, before he left Yverdon, " it will be a 
great wonder," for in the teaching he saw there were 
defects "which one would have blushed for in the 
lowest of village schools." ^ 

Eamsauer gives us an interesting account of the 

1 Meine LebensschicJcsale , pp. 78-81. 

2 J6icZ.,p. 78. 

L.ofC. 



100 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

visits of foreigners, which shows what importance 
Pestalozzi attached to them and what illusions they 
gave rise to in his mind : — 

"Every time that a new visitor came, Pestalozzi 
went in search of the masters in whom he had most 
confidence, and said to them : ^ Here is an important 
personage who wishes to examine everything in de- 
tail. Show him what we can do, take your best 
pupils, your exercise books, and make him understand 
what we do and what we desire to do.' Hundreds 
and hundreds of times people came merely out of 
curiosity, often utterly foolish and ignorant persons, 
who came to Yverdon simply because it was the 
fashion; but Pestalozzi took them all for important 
personages. We had to interrupt the ordinary class- 
teaching on their account and hold a kind of examina- 
tion of the pupils. It was not unusual in summer for 
strangers to come to the castle four or five times in 
the same day, and we had to interrupt the lessons two, 
three, and four times on their account. 

"In 1814 the arrival of Prince Esterhazy was an- 
nounced at Yverdon. Pestalozzi, on hearing the news, 
ran all over the house crying : ^ Ramsauer, Ramsauer, 
where are you ? Come quickly with your best pupils, 
in gymnastics, drawing, arithmetic, geometry; you 
must take them to the Maison-Rouge (the hotel at 
which the prince was staying) ; he is a very impor- 
tant personage, immensely rich ; he has thousands 
of serfs in Hungary and Austria, he will not fail to 
found schools and to set his serfs free, if we succeed 
in gaining him for our cause.' I took some fifteen 
pupils with me to the hotel, and Pestalozzi presented 
me to the prince in the following terms : ^ This is 



YVERDON 101 

the teacher of my pupils ; this young man came to me 
fifteen years ago from the canton of Appenzell with 
other poor children. He was educated by the free 
development of his individual faculties, and now he 
has become a teacher himself. You see from that, 
that the poor have just as many, if not more, faculties 
than the rich ; but among the poor, these faculties are 
rarely developed, and then not methodically. That is 
why the amelioration of primary schools is so impor- 
tant. But he is going to show you himself, better 
than I could, the results we obtain. I leave him then 
with you.' I then began to question the pupils, to 
talk, explain, and shout with so much zeal, that I was 
soon quite hoarse, and never doubted but what the 
prince was completely persuaded. At the end of an 
hour Pestalozzi came back. The prince expressed his 
satisfaction at what he had seen. We took our leave, 
and going downstairs Pestalozzi said to me, *He is 
convinced, quite convinced, and will certainly go and 
found schools in his Hungarian domains.' When he 
reached the bottom, he cried with one of his favourite 
expletives : * What have I done to my arm ? It hurts 
me; look, it is all swollen, and I cannot bend it.' 
And, as a matter of fact, his very wide sleeve had 
become too tight. I looked at the enormous key in 
the door of the Maison-Rouge, and I said to Pestalozzi, 
'Oh, you must have knocked against this key, an 
hour ago, when we went up to the prince.' On look- 
ing at the key, we saw that Pestalozzi had struck it 
such a blow with his elbow that he had bent it ; and in 
his enthusiasm and his joy had remained a whole hour 
without noticing it. Such was the fire which burnt 
within him still at seventy, when he saw the pros- 



102 • PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

pect of doing good. I could quote many other ex- 
amples." ^ 

Schmid's return was soon almost as much regretted 
as it had before been desired. " He came back," Pes- 
talozzi tells us, " but he came back to be, as he had 
always been, a stumbling-block for many, a stumbling- 
block for all who, in their weakness and superficiality, 
imagined themselves on heights on which they were 
not in reality." ^ On his arrival, he found Pestalozzi 
in despair and ready to go back to Neuhof. He suc- 
ceeded in dissuading him from this idea, promising 
to raise the prosperity of the institute. He set to work 
at once and made radical reforms. " He first reduced 
the teaching staff, which was almost as numerous as 
at his departure, although the number of the pupils 
had diminished by half, and also reduced the sal- 
aries by half, although he increased the number of 
teaching hours." To give an idea of the "dilapida- 
tion " which prevailed in the economic administration 
of the establishment, Pestalozzi tells us that he had 
then for seventy-eight pupils, twenty-two teachers to 
whom they gave " board and lodging, light and laun- 
dry, besides an annual salary which represented a sum 
of ten thousand livres (Swiss money). "^ Finally, the 
printing-office was suppressed. To compensate for 
this Schmid fulfilled a dream Pestalozzi had long 
cherished,'' the publication of a complete edition of 
his works. He went himself to Stuttgart in Febru- 

1 Ranisauer, Kurze Skizze meines pddagogischen Lebens, pp. 42- 
43. ^ Ibid., p. 8S. s Ibid., p. 90. 

•*"Ihope," Pestalozzi wrote to Fellenberg on the 15th of No- 
vember, 1793, " that after having made enough sacrifices ... I 
shall nevertheless be able, after a lapse of some years, to make a 
small fortune by the publication of my works, which have been 



YVERDON 103 

ary, 1817, to see Cotta, the publisher, and negotiated 
for most advantageous terms for Pestalozzi. 

The measures taken by Schmid with regard to the 
staff, advisable as they might be from an economic 
point of view, naturally resulted in new bitterness and 
in consequence in new difficulties for Pestalozzi. A 
greater trouble was in store for him, for his wife died at 
the age of seventy-six, after a few days illness, on the 
12th of December. From that time quite alone, Pesta- 
lozzi threw himself completely into the arms of Schmid, 
whom he considered as his saviour. Schmid, hence- 
forth, ruled him completely, to the detriment of Nie- 
derer. Things came to such a pitch that Niederer 
threatened to leave the institute, if Schmid continued 
to behave as he did. Pestalozzi had great trouble 
in pacifying them, and the truce was not of long dura- 
tion. A more serious conflict between several masters 
of the institute took place some time after, likewise 
occasioned by Schmid's tyranny. Sixteen inmates of 
the house, among whom were Niederer, Kriisi, Ram- 
sauer, and Blockmann, sent in their resignation. But 
this time Pestalozzi followed his own preference, and 
declared he would rather lose them all than reduce 
the influence of Schmid, who alone had the power 
to save him. All except Niederer and Kriisi accord- 
ingly left the establishment in the course of the 
summer of 1816. They left without bearing Pesta- 
lozzi any malice, whom, on the contrary, they pitied 
from the bottom of their hearts. Kriisi, himself, in 
spite of his desire of conciliation, was obliged to leave 
a short time after. He opened a school of his own at 

most carefully revised. I count all the more on the assistance of my 
friends in raising a subscription," 



104 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

Yverdon, for which Pestalozzi generously gave him his 
first pupils, then later on he went to Trogen, and finally 
became head-master of a training college at Gais. 

This break-up struck a terrible blow at the institute, 
which then numbered some hundred pupils, among 
whom were many English boys, for it left it with 
hardly any masters just at a time when it was becom- 
ing prosperous again. Jullien, who had brought 
Pestalozzi eighty pupils from France, and was now 
settled at Yverdon (since Easter, 1816), left the fol- 
lowing year, offended, it is said, by Schmid. He 
nevertheless remained a most enthusiastic partisan of 
Pestalozzi's institute. 

The misunderstanding between Niederer and Schmid 
grew worse and worse, so much so that in consequence 
of very unpleasant occurrences Niederer communi- 
cated to Pestalozzi on the 22d of January, 1817, his 
resolution of leaving the establishment. In spite of 
Pestalozzi's supplications, nothing could induce him 
to alter this resolution, and all that Pestalozzi could 
obtain was that he would continue to give the reli- 
gious instruction to those pupils who were being pre- 
pared for confirmation, which was to take place at 
Whitsuntide. On the day of the ceremony, Niederer, 
after having preached the usual sermon, considered it 
necessary, without letting Pestalozzi know his inten- 
tion beforehand, to announce from the pulpit his de- 
parture, in terms which Pestalozzi considered offensive. 
He accordingly rose to protest, and said "Niederer 
was there to confirm his pupils and edify his hearers 
by the ceremony, and not to discuss in the pulpit the 
enmity which subsisted between them." ^ 

1 Meine LebensschicJcsale, p. 107. 



YVERDON 105 

Niederer's departure did not put an end to the hos- 
tilities. A disagreement having arisen between Pes- 
talozzi and Frau Niederer on the question of the 
settlement of the accounts of the establishment for 
girls, which had been made over to her, Pestalozzi 
thought to put an end to the matter by giving a 
receipt in full for anything that might be owing to 
him. Niederer took great offence at this act of gen- 
erosity and insisted on a businesslike settlement of 
the accounts. The excitement which this affair caused 
Pestalozzi came at the same time as a new revolt of 
the masters of the institute, who threatened to discon- 
tinue their work if Pestalozzi did not raise their sala- 
ries and allow them "to drink coffee after dinner" 
with him.^ The combined effect of these dissensions 
excited Pestalozzi to such a pitch that Schmid, fear- 
ing for his reason, was compelled to take him up the 
Jura Mountains, to a little village called "les Bul- 
lets." The fresh mountain air soon soothed his 
nervous irritation, although he remained, as he says 
himself, in a certain " condition of weakness of mind, 
or rather of absent-mindedness joined to a very high 
degree of worry and discouragement." ^ He spent 
some weeks among the mountains and felt himself " a 
free man again," and so happy that he did not want 
to return to his institute, which seemed like "a hell 
he had happily escaped from." ^ He even embodied 
his sorrows in a poem which has been preserved for 
us by Fellenberg.'' 

1 Meine Lebensschicksale, p. 110. 

^ Ibid., -p. 126. 

sibid., p. 127. 

4 Pestalozzi' s unedirte Brief e, p. 17. 



106 PESTALOZZrS LIFE 

Slegenbogen, 9iegenbogen, 
S)u oerfunbeft @otte« SSonnel 
@d)ein and) mir iittt betner g-arben 
SDZilbem ©lan^e, fd)ein in meinen 
SBilben, lebenSlaugen ©tiirm! 
^unbe mir ben befferen 9J?orgen, 
^iinbe mir ben befjeren Sag, 
^egcnbogen, ^liegenbogen! 

3n ber ©tiirme Sagen 

§at mid) ®ott getragen. 
SJJeine @eele lobe @ott! 

2)?u^ id) [terben 
(St)' bu mir erfd)einft, 
Unb mir grenben bringft 
Unb ben befjeren XaQ ; 

Tin^ id) auotrinfen 
S)en ^>ld) tcQ 3anU, 
S)en J^eld) ber UnDerfol)nIid)!eit 

33i« auf feine ^efen? 
SD^ufe id) [terben, el)' mein ^riebc 
^ommt, ber g-riebe, ben id) fnd)e? 
3d) erfenne meine ®d)nlb, 
3d) erfenne meine ®d)Uidd)e, 
Unb in l^tebe nnb mit 2^l)rdnen 
^Ber^eil)' id) 9lUen il)re @d)ulb: 
S)od) im Sobe finb id) grieben, 
Unb im Sobe roirb erjd)einen 

W\x mein befjrer Sag! 
^iinber meiner beffern Sage, 
Sieblid) mirft bn bann erjd)einen 
Ueber meinen bben ©ruft, 
9?egenbogen, 9iegenbogen! 

SSie ber frifd)gefottne (Sd)nee, 
2Bie bcQ SBinter^ l)eUe g-loden, 
2)ie beim Sobe meiner ©attin, 
3n ber ©onne lieblid) gidnsenb, 
©anfen auf i^r offene^ @rab : 



YVERDON 107 

SJegeubogen, Qiegenbogen, 
@o erfdjeiue bonu and) mir, 
^iebtid), Iteblid), menn ic^ fterbe. 

3u ber ®turme Sagen 

^;>at mid) ©ott getragen, 
SD^eiite ®eele (obe ©ott! 

Rainbow, rainbow, you announce God's delight ! Appear to 
me, too, in your colours and mild splendour, appear in the wild 
storm of my life ! Announce to me a better morn, a better day, 
rainbow, rainbow. 

God has borne me through the days of storms. Praise God, 

my soul ! Must I die before you appear to me and bring me 
joy and a better day ; must I drink the cup of hostility, the cup 
of unforgiving enmity, to the very dregs ? Must I die, before my 
peace, the peace I seek, has come ? I acknowledge my fault, 

1 acknowledge my weakness, and in love and with tears I for- 
give all their faults ; but I find peace in death, and in death 
will appear to me my better day ! Rainbow, rainbow, you 
announcer of better days, beautiful will you then appear over 
my dreary grave ! 

Like fresh-fallen snow, like the wliite flakes of winter, which 
at the death of my wife fell into her open grave, gleaming in 
the sun ; rainbow, rainbow, appear in your beauty for me 
when I die. God has borne me through the days of storms. 
Praise God, O my soul. 

On his return from the mountains, Niederer and his 
wife recommenced hostilities, and the affair dragged 
its weary length through a correspondence which 
waxed more and more bitter and only made things 
worse, without any possibility of coming to an under- 
standing. Not until seven years later did the parties 
concerned determine finally to appeal to law. Mean- 
while Niederer announced to the public that in order 
not to let Pestalozzi's ideas perish he had joined with 
Krtisi and Conrad Naf (a Zurich teacher, who had 



108 PESTALOZZrS LIFE 

some years before started an institute for deaf-mutes 
at Yverdon), and that their establishment represented 
the true Pestalozzian tradition. 

Jullien, who still had two sons at the institute and 
was greatly concerned about Pestalozzi's situation, 
which grew worse and worse, thought he had found 
a means of delivering him by advising him to make 
over the management of the establishment to Fellen- 
berg, with whom he was again on friendly terms. 
Fellenberg fell in very willingly with this proposition 
and wrote to Pestalozzi from Berne, on the 23d of 
August, 1817, to suggest the idea to him. 

Pestalozzi consented to go to Hofwyl, where Fellen- 
berg made him an offer which seemed to him so 
advantageous that he commissioned Schmid to con- 
tinue the negotiations. Schmid, considering a trial 
necessary to see if concord could reign between the 
two persons concerned, suggested to Fellenberg that 
he should invite Pestalozzi to come and stay with him 
at his castle at Diemerswyl, which was about half a 
league from Hofwyl. Fellenberg profited by this visit 
to make Pestalozzi sign, on the 14th of October, a bond 
which, while relieving him from all j^ecuniary anxiety 
and assuring the future of his grandson, gave him the 
hope of at length realising the dream of his youth, 
viz., the foundation of an establishment for the poor, 
to which the whole sum raised by the subscription for 
Pestalozzi's work was to be devoted. On the other 
hand, Pestalozzi gave up all his independence, and 
although he had skilfully secured his right of not 
being separated from Schmid, in reality the latter' s 
influence was annihilated. Covered with shame at 
what he had done, Pestalozzi confessed to Schmid 



YVERDON 10» 

as soon as he returned, telling him he still counted on 
him to save him. We can picture to ourselves the 
vexation of Schmid, who did all he could to cancel 
the agreement, pointing out to Pestalozzi that he 
could not accept the partnership. But Fellenberg 
opposed him energetically, and a most violent quarrel 
took place, which ended in a definite rupture. Jullien 
was deeply vexed, and removed his two sons from the 
institute, their departure being followed by that of 
other French pupils. 

Although we may admit that Schmid was not abso- 
lutely disinterested in this affair, we must recognise 
that he defended Pestalozzi's interests better than he 
could have done himself. He made him comprehend 
that it was much more essential for him " to work to 
spread, defend, and establish on a more solid founda- 
tion his ideas on elementary education, than to utilise 
the methods, as yet not fully matured, in an establish- 
ment for the poor." ^ That was his aim when he 
negotiated the agreement with Cotta for him, and 
when he had appealed to foreign courts to take an 
interest in the publication of Pestalozzi's works. The 
success of the subscription organised by his efforts 
likewise attested to the truth of his remarks. Among 
the subscribers were the Emperor of Russia, who gave 
five thousand roubles, the king of Bavaria, who gave 
seven hundred florins, and the king of Prussia, who 
subscribed four hundred thalers. At the end of the 
year the sum total of the subscriptions had reached 
one hundred thousand francs, the half of which, accord- 
ing to the agreement, was to be paid over to Pesta- 
lozzi. The latter, in his joy, immediately determined 

i Meine Lebensschicksale, p. 132. 



110 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

to devote this sum of fifty thousand francs to "the 
education of the lower classes and the poor," i.e. the 
foundation of an orphanage, and solemnly announced 
his intention in a speech made on his seventy-second 
birthday, on the 12th of January, 1818.^ On this 
occasion he sought a reconciliation with Niederer, and 
with Krilsi, whom he would have liked to interest in 
his new undertaking ; but he failed in his attempt. 

Pestalozzi chose, as the site of his orphanage, the 
village of Clindy, situated ten minutes' walk from 
Yverdon, and opened it on the 13th of September, 
1818, with a dozen orphans, boys and girls, who were 
to be brought up "as poor children, and to be pre- 
pared for an existence suitable to the poor," i.e. " to 
be preserved from all temptations of wealth, of use- 
less enjoyment and desires difficult to gratify in pov- 
erty." ^ The pupils were to remain five years in the 
orphanage and be prepared for the calling of teachers. 
The number of pupils was soon increased to thirty, 
among them some paying pupils, whom Pestalozzi un- 
wisely accepted. Finally, in consequence of an appeal 
made to the English public, a number of pupils came 
from England. Greaves, an enthusiastic admirer of 
Pestalozzi's ideas, then staying at Yverdon, offered to 
teach his own language free of charge. Then they 
found themselves compelled to add instruction in 
French and Latin, so that the orphanage lost more 
and more its original character, and became an es- 
tablishment similar to that at Yverdon. Pestalozzi 
himself found it quite natural, in 1820, to join the 
pupils of the orphanage to those of the institute, in 

1 Rede an sein Haus, 1818. 

2 MeinQ Lebensschicksale, pp. 194, 195. 



YVERDON 111 

the castle occupied by the latter. The girls were in- 
stalled in the second floor. 

The Yverdon municipality showed small satisfac- 
tion at this fusion of the two establishments, which 
completely changed the character of the institute, 
"On the one hand by joining to it a school for the 
the poor, on the other by trying to bring the interior 
arrangements into conformity with the luxurious 
tastes and habits of the English, of whom there was 
now a considerable number in the institute." ^ How- 
ever, Pestalozzi, who had already obtained, in July, 
1817, the renewal of the concession of the castle for a 
period of five years after his death, " in favour of the 
persons whom he might designate to succeed him," ^ 
had taken his grandson, Gottlieb, into partnership in 
the undertaking, and asked that this period might be 
extended to fifteen or twenty years. At this news, 
Niederer, Kriisi, and Naf, who seemed for the last 
three years to have suspended hostilities, made repre- 
sentations to the municipality to prevent the negotia- 
tions from being successful, pointing .out that it was 
impossible for them to live in peace at Yverdon, if 
Schmid remained master of the institute. They gained 
the day, and Pestalozzi's request was refused. 

War then broke out more vigorously than ever. An 
action which Schmid had brought in 1821 against 
Niederer, Kriisi, and Naf for calumnious assertions, 
made by them against him in their letter to the 
municipality, provoked a wordy war, in which abuse 
was freely interchanged in newspapers and pamphlets. 
In his turn Niederer brought an action against Schmid 
for a libel contained in a pamphlet of Schmid's, en- 
1 DeGuimps, p. 400. 2 ji^ia. 



112 PESTALOZZI'S LIFE 

titled Truth and Error in PestalozzVs Memoirs demon- 
strated by Facts,^ which appeared in 1822. Pestalozzi 
was also implicated, as an accomplice of Schmid, in 
this libel. On the intervention of the government of 
Vaud, an umpire was appointed, who was to try to 
reconcile the parties; but just as they were on the 
point of coming to an understanding, the negotiations 
failed for some trivial cause. Pestalozzi and Schmid 
accordingly had to appear before the court of law at 
Yverdon, but were acquitted. In his turn Pestalozzi 
attacked Niederer for another abusive article, and 
public opinion was roused to such a pitch, that the 
Council of State ordered W. du Thon, the prefect of 
Yverdon, to appeal to both parties, and make them 
understand the necessity of putting an end to this 
scandal. The decision was accepted and signed by 
the belligerents on the 31st of December, 1823. 

These deplorable incidents had naturally struck a 
serious blow at the renown and prosperity of the insti- 
tute, and hastened its fall. The final blow was struck 
by the dismissal of Schmid, which his enemies obtained 
from the Council of State, in the shape of a decree of 
expulsion, dated the 6th of October, 1824. Then Pes- 
talozzi determined to leave Yverdon and transfer his 
orphanage to Neuhof. This was a plan which he had 
long had in his mind, and he counted on taking with 
him as teaching-staff the pupils he had trained at 
Clindy, and prepared for a teaching career. Unfor- 
tunately, not one was willing to accompany him, and, 
forgetful of all they owed their benefactor, they left 
him to turn to account elsewhere the instruction they 

1 Wahrheit und Irrtum in Pestalozzis Lebensschicksalen durch 
Thatsachen dargelegt, 1822. 



YVERDON 113 

had received from him, saying, "It was too much to 
ask from their gratitude, and they were not bound to 
sacrifice themselves to such an extent for him."^ 
There was, moreover, nothing left of the money which 
the publication of his works had brought Pestalozzi. 
He thus found himself helpless, and was obliged to 
declare publicly, on the 17th of March, 1824, that it 
was henceforth impossible for him "to fulfil the 
hopes which he had awakened in the hearts of so 
many generous philanthropists and friends of educa- 
tion by his project of founding an orphanage." ^ He 
was forced to close his institute, which had fallen into 
utter decay, and on the 2d of March, 1825, he left 
Yverdon, accompanied by Schmid and the four last 
pupils, two of whom were Spaniards, for Neuhof. 
This was already occupied by his grandson, Gottlieb, 
and his family. ^' Truly," said he, " this parting 
caused me so much sorrow, that it seemed as if I had 
put an end to my life."^ The castle at Yverdon was 
shortly after made over to a boys' school founded by 
Krtisi and at that time under the management of 
Eank. 

1 Meine LebensschicJcsale , p. 237. 

2 Ibid., p. 241. 3 roid., p. 242. 



CHAPTER VI 

NEUHOF AGAIN (1825-1827) 

Pestalozzi's last years. His Swanks Dirge and his Fates of My 
Life. — Fresh troubles. — Pestalozzi's death. 

Pestalozzi survived the collapse of his work only 
two years. He thought to raise means by the pub- 
lication of a French and an English edition of his 
works, and sent Schmid to Paris and London to try to 
put his plan into execution, and find subscribers. And 
as he did not give up his hope of founding an orphan- 
age at Neuhof, for which the building was already be- 
gun, he recommended Schmid to utilise his stay in 
France and England, to gain information of the in- 
dustries which might be suitable for his establish- 
ment. But none of these projects could be realised. 

During Schmid's journey, Pestalozzi, more vigorous 
than ever, occupied himself with retracing his life 
and expounding his doctrines for the last time. This 
formed the subject of his two last works, the Swanks 
Dirge^ and My Fortunes as Superintendent of my Edu- 
cational Establishments at Burgdorf and Yverdon/^^ 
which are permeated by a profound melancholy. 
They were published in 1826. 

In May, 1825, he was enthusiastically elected presi- 

1 Schwanengesang. 

2 Meine Lebensschicksale als Vorsteher meiner Erziehungsanstal- 
ten in Burgdorf und Iferten. 

114 



NEUHOF AGAIN 115 

dent of the Helvetian Society of Schinznach, and in 
his capacity of president made a speech On Father- 
land and Education at the meeting which took place 
at Langenthal on the 26th of April, 1826. 

Shortly after, on the occasion of a visit which he 
and Schmid paid to the orphanage at Beuggen, near 
Eheinfalden, on the 21st of June, 1826, a touching fes- 
tival was organised in his honour. He was also present, 
on the 21st of November following, at the meeting of 
the Society for the Promotion of Education (Kultur- 
gesellschaft) of the District of Brugg, at which his 
Attempt at a Sketch on the Essence of the Idea of Ele- 
mentary Educatioyi ^ was read. 

But new troubles awaited him. As a consequence 
of dissensions which took place between the wife of 
his grandson, Gottlieb, and Lisabeth, the latter had had 
to leave Neuhof in 1824, and had gone to Gais. Pesta- 
lozzi also had difficulties with the orphanage at Gais, 
where Lisabeth had placed her idiot son, on a ques- 
tion of money started by Schmid. Pestalozzi, sum- 
moned before the court at Brugg by the board of the 
orphanage, was deeply affected by this proceeding. 
On the other hand, the publication of his Memoirs 
provoked a new flood of calumnies, inspired by Fel- 
lenberg and printed in the newspapers. A most out- 
rageous pamphlet was moreover published by a former 
master at the institute, a man named Biber. The 
reading of this pamphlet caused Pestalozzi to have a 
violent attack of fever. He wished to emerge from 
the silent reserve which he had imposed on himself 
until then and draw up a refutation, but he was too 

1 Versuch einer Skizze iiber das Wese^i der Idee der Elementar' 
hildung, etc. 



116 PESTALOZZrS LIFE 

unwell, and only had the strength to dictate his last 
wishes to the pastor of Birr on the 15th of February, 
1827. In this document, he expresses his regret at 
not being able to live a few months longer, so as to be 
able to justify himself and Schmid and also his de- 
sire that the latter might take his place and be a 
father to his children. He repeated that Schmid had 
been his saviour, and that he died his debtor. Finally 
he blessed his friends and forgave his enemies.^ 

He was moved to "Brugg, but died two days after, 
in the morning of the 17th of February. His coffin 
was carried to the cemetery at Birr by the teachers in 
the neighbourhood, with a very small number of friends 
and children from the village school as only mourners. 
In 1846 the government of the canton of Argovie had 
a monument erected in front of the new school at 
Birr, and thither his remains were carried. 

His epitaph appears on the following page. 

1 Fellenberg's Klage, pp. 59-63. See this document in extenso in 
Guillaume, pp. 430-432. 



NEUHOF AGAIN 117 



^einrid? Pestalojst 

(Seboren in giirid? am \2. ^anuav {7^6, 
<5cstorben in Brugg ben \7. f^ornung i[827. 

9ietter ber Slrmen in 9^eu^of, 

^rebiger beg 35o(teS in l^ien^crb nnb ©ertnib, 

3n ®tan5 35ater ber SBaifen, 

3n iBurgborf unb 3JJunci)enbud)fee 

©riinber ber nenen SSolf§jd)ute, 

3n 3fferten (Srjie^er ber 9)fenfcf)l)eit. 

2«enfd), (Sl)rift, S3urger. 

2tIIeg fur 5tnbere, fiir fid) 9Hd)t8 ! 

(Segen feinem 9Zamen ! 

(Here lies Henry Pestalozzi, born in Zurich on the 12th of Janu- 
ary, 1746, died at Brugg on the 17th of February, 1827. Saviour of 
the poor at Neuhof, Preacher to the people in " Lienhard und 
Gertrud," Father of the Fatherless in Stanz, Founder of the new- 
elementary school at Burgdorf and Miinchenbuchsee, educator of 
humanity in Yverdon. Man, Christian, Citizen. Everything for 
others, nothing for himself ! Blessings be on his name ! ) 



Part II 
PESTALOZZrS EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

Mein Leben hat nichts Ganzes, nichts Vollendetes hervorge- 
bracht ; meine Schrift kaiin audi nichts Ganzes und nichts 
Vollendetes leisten. 

(My life has produced nothing whole, nothing complete ; my 
work cannot then either be a whole, nor complete.) 

Pestalozzi, Schwaneiigesang, Vorrede. 



INDEX 

OF THE WORKS OF PESTALOZZI REFERRED TO IN 
THIS SECOND PART 







Vol. of 


Titles of 


THE WoitK 


MaNN'8 

Ed. 


Lienhard und Gertrud (1781- 


Leonard and Gertrude. 


i&n 


1787). 






Abendstunde eines Einsied- 


A Hermit's Evening Hour. 


HI 


lers (1780). 






Aus dem Schweizerblatt : 


From the ' ' Schweizerblatt " : 


HI 


Von derErziehung (1782). 


On Education. 




Pestalozzi's Brief an einen 


Pestalozzi's Letter to a 




Freund iiber seinen Auf- 


Friend on his Stay at 


III 


euthaltin Stauz (1796). 


Stanz. 




Wie Gertrud ihre Kinder 


How Gertrude teaches her 


HI 


lehrt (1801). 


Children. 




Ansicbten und Erfahrungen, 


Views and Experiences with 


HI 


die Idee der Elementar- 


Regard to the Elementary 




__bildungbetreffend (1807). 


Education. 




ijber die Idee der Elemen- 


On the Idea of the Element- 


HI 


tarbildung (1809). 


ary Education. 




Reden an sein Haus (1808- 


Pestalozzi's Discourse to his 


IV 


1818). 


House. 




Schwanengesang (1826) . 


Swan's Dirge. 


IV 



Note. — The Roman numbers refer to the numbers of the 
paragraphs of the editions of the Selected Works published by 
Fr. Mann. 



120 



BOOK I 

NECESSITY AND AIM OF EDUCATION — 
WAYS AND MEANS 

CHAPTER I 

EDUCATION FROM THE SOCIAL POINT OF VIEW 

Necessity of education from the social point of view. — Necessity 
of education for tlie people. — Education is a social duty. 

Necessity of Education from the Social Point of Vieiv — 
Man left to himself is naturally idle, ignorant, im- 
provident, thoughtless, careless, credulous, timid, and 
full of unbounded desires. And the dan- ^^^g^^/^^^j,,^ ^ 
gers which his vreakness encounters, and Gertrud, 
the obstacles placed in the way of his de- ^^' ^ *^* 
sires, make him also tortuous, cunning, crafty, suspi- 
cious, violent, bold, revengeful, and cruel. That is 
man such as he would inevitably become if he were 
abandoned to himself and deprived of culture; he 
would steal as readily as he would eat, and he would 
kill as readily as sleep. His need is his right, his de- 
sires are the foundation of his right, and his demands 
know no other limits than his idleness and the impossi- 
bility of obtaining more. 

It is then absolutely necessary for society, if it 
wishes the individual to be useful, or even merely en- 

121 



122 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

durable, to make of him something quite different to 
what he naturally is. 

The whole social value of man, i.e. the profit which 
society ought to gain by those of his faculties which 
may be turned to account, depends then on institutions, 
morals, methods of education, and on the laws which 
have for their aim his improvement and adaptation to 
the social order, by the repression of his natural in- 
stincts ; for Nature, far from preparing him for society, 
has on the contrary put the greatest obstacles in him- 
self. Man remains the original, primitive man of Na- 
ture in proportion as he lacks social culture; he 
remains the weak and dangerous being which the deni- 
zen of the forest is, on the one hand, as useless as he 
is dangerous to society, on the other, deprived of its 
advantages. It would be better for him then to remain 
in the forests ; at least he would be free and would not 
curse his chain. 

But it is by no means easy to transform the natural 
man; to do that, we must have all the wisdom of a 
legislator perfectly acquainted with human nature, or 
if you like, for both are true, the piety of an angelic, 
adorable virtue. 

Every gap in civil society, every check in social life, 
every hope of regaining by force or cunning his natural 
liberty, or the power of gratifying his natural instincts 
outside the pale of society, rekindles the spark of re- 
volt always hidden in the heart of the man of Nature, 
and quickens the always existent germs of our primi- 
tive instincts, and perpetually paralyses the forces 
which our social culture opposes to these instincts. 

Against all this the legislator must direct his efforts, 
if he desire to make men happy by social organisation, 



EDTJCATiON FROM SOCIAL POINT OF VIEW l23 

and to enable him to enjoy the first benefits of the social 
state, justice and security, which are impossible of 
attainment if men remain without culture. All that 
is only possible after the individuals have been freed 
from their chief faults and from the vices inherent in 
their natural condition. 

A child is perfectly educated if he has learned to take 
care of what will later on belong to him, to Lienhard u. 
keep it in order, and to make use of it for Gertrud, 
the welfare of those belonging to him. ' ^ ^^' 

The aim of education is to prepare men to he what 
they will he in society. The child must be taught to 
reflect, so that he maybe open; prudent, ihid.,lY, 
so that he may not be compelled to be mis- § 40. 
trustful ; industrious, so that he may not become a 
beggar ; sincere, that he may inspire confidence ; rea- 
sonable, so that he may have confidence in himself. In 
short, he must be so brought up that he will be some- 
thing wherever he may be, which is very different to 
not being able to do anything, except with his mouth 
or on paper. 

One ought to try and make people what they will be 
in society according to their abilities, and for that one 
should in every case employ the man who understands 
a thing best, whether it is a qiiestion of ploughing a 
field or catching rats or mice. 

Necessity of Education for the People — Some people 
say it is of no use to give the common people too good 
an education. There must be moles as well j^^^ ^^^ 
as other creatures. Otherwise God would Elem.,%% 
not have created any. And how miserable ^^' ^^^' 
these creatures would be underground if they had 
good eyes. 



124 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

Education is a Social Duty — Pestalozzi believes 
that all God's gifts are good. He considers that it is 
not possible that the rightful, natural cultivation of 
these gifts could ever be to the detriment of the 
human race ; on the contrary, the cultivation of these 
gifts, far from being left to the option of men, is at 
the centre, nay, is the centre of the range of the duties 
of the human race. This opinion is moreover justified 
and confirmed by the first unvarying principles of 
religion and Christianity. 



CHAPTER II 

AIM AND THEORY OF EDUCATION 

General aim and general principles of education. — Adapta- 
tion to individual conditions. — Worthlessness of general rules 
of education. — Superiority of practice to theory. — Useless- 
ness of philosophers. — Superiority of the lower classes from 
the point of view of education. — Models to follow. — Evil 
influence of schools. — Definition and fundamental principle 
of education. — Advantages of the education of former times. 

— Games as methods of education. — The family and not the 
school is the centre of education. — Responsibility of rulers. 

— Primary education is founded on the primary need of 
mankind. — Disadvantages of general rule in education. — 
The threefold aim of education : to fix the attention, to form 
the judgment, and to elevate the sentiment. — Superiority 
of home influence to books and methods. — Verbal education 
and practical education. — Disadvantages of general a priori 
principles for the knowledge of truth. — Special or profes- 
sional training. 

General Aim and General Principles of Education — 

The aim of education is not to turn out good tailors, 

bootmakers, tradesmen, or soldiers, but to 

turn out tailors, bootmakers, tradesmen, '^'^^Genrud 

^ \ ' ihre Kinder 

and soldiers who are, in the highest mean- Ze7in,x,§22. 

ing of the word, men. 

Consequently the aim of all education and instruc- 
tion is and can be no other than the harmonious 
development of the powers and faculties of human 
nature. 

126 



126 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

Human nature in the whole range of its disposi- 
tions, powers, necessities, and relations is 

^Fi^ ^^5 IS ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ point of starting and centre 
of education, but also the last aim, the 

exclusive object of its task. 

To live, to be happy in his state of life, and to 
Von der become a useful member of society is the 
Erziehung, destiny of man, is the aim of the educa- 
§ ^' tion of children. 

Consequently the careful use of the ways and 
means by which every child, in his own state of life, 
may be naturally and easily brought to the talents, 
sentiments, judgments, and attachments by which he 
becomes happy in his state of life and a useful member 
of society, is the foundation of every good education. 

^, , The child must be considered at every 

Idee der p t • in- • 

^';em.,§i94. stage of education and oi instruction as a 

whole. 

It is not a question of merely cultivating 
Ihid., § 198. the intellect, but of cultivating man as a 

whole. 
Ibid., § 247. The art of pedagogy must, above all, 

cause, or at any rate permit. Nature to 
ripen in its own work, and never connect its processes 
to the unripened force of Nature; otherwise they 
never will and never can ripen. 

"^ child who knows how to pray, work, and think is 
said to be already half educated." Pestalozzi 
qesang Tqi ^^ ^^ *^^^ Opinion, and declares that his 
elementary education attains this result. 



AIM AND THEORY OF EDUCATION 127 

Adaptation to Individual Conditions — Diverse as 
are the circumstances of men, diverse as are their 
needs, their customs, and their attachments, y^^ , 
just so diverse are the means and ways of Erziehung, 
educating every man to those sentiments ^§ ^~^^' 
and talents, through the cultivation of which he will 
probably become a more satisfied and a happier man 
in his state of life. 

Wortlilessness of General Rides of Education — The 
general rules of education which apply to all climates, 
all forms of government, and all callings are one and 
all of as much value as similar Sunday sermons, which 
so often and so much edify whole congregations, and 
on the other hand so seldom help a single man on the 
right path. 

Superiority of Practice to Theory — However, it is 
good in the world that while the teachers of men 
discourse vaguely from their heights to the people on 
what is right, women in country cottages execute with 
precision what the former one and all talk to the 
winds, when they speak of things they do not practise 
themselves. 

Uselessness of Philosophers — It is above all good in 
the subject of education that the domestic circum- 
stances of the common people, consequently of the 
generality of men, are such that almost everywhere 
parents necessarily, naturally, and spontaneously hit 
upon what is most important in their state of life and 
in their circumstances for the education of their chil- 
dren. If it were not so, and if men had to wait for 
the wise to give them food for their children, the 
human race would of a truth die out in all the four 
quarters of the globe. 



128 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

Superiority of the Loiver Classes from the Point of 
View of Education — In fact, whichever way we look, 
the respectable common man is better educated for 
his needs and for his position than the people, small 
and great, of the upper classes, who have fallen into 
the hands of the ranks of the philosophical boys who, 
by dint of study, of argument on abstract subjects, 
and by abandonment to their feelings, daily lose more 
of the sense of sight and of hearing, and therefore 
can make nothing of housework, either for themselves 
or their pupils. 

Models to follow — We know that experience is the 
seal of truth, let it then be our lode star. Those men 
have been best educated for their position and their 
destiny who can best manage their households and 
their business. 

Look at the mansions of those noblemen, the houses 
of those citizens, and the cottages of those peasants 
whose prosperity has lasted for centuries, for there 
the principles of the true education of men have been 
likewise practised for centuries, and you will see 
that the household ways of all these people, however 
diverse their rank, have been essentially, absolutely 
identical and very simple. You will invariably see 
that husband and wife have learned from father and 
grandfather the manners and customs which will 
make the happiness of their family in future cen- 
turies, as they have done in the past. You will note 
that these people owe nothing to their schools, nor to 
methods of education. Whenever these families have 
died out, they have done so because the education of 
the children has not been in harmony with their state 
of life. 



AIM AND THEORY OF EDUCATION 129 

Evil Influence of Schools. — The chief causes of the 
evil are to be looked for in universities and schools, 
where the education, even if good in itself, is too gen- 
eral and too artificial. The professional careers of 
professors, clergymen, and barristers, in short of all 
whose education has been most artificial, offer most 
examples of this family decay. 

Wherever this decay has taken place, it is because 
the children have been imprudently or forcibly 
Aveaned from the attachment to their station and to 
their father's profession, and because ordinary family 
education has been neglected. 

Consequently all methods of education which lead 
to these results are defective. 

Definition and Fundamental Principle of Education — 
The education of men is nothing else than the filing of 
every ring of the great chain which con- i^^^^j^^^^ ^, 
nects humanity and makes it a whole, and Gertrud, 
the mistakes of education consist in taking ^^^' § ^^' 
each ring of the chain separately to work at it, as if 
it were a whole in itself, and did not belong to the 
whole chain, and as if the strength and futility of 
every ring were due to the fact that it was gilt, sil- 
vered, or even set with precious stones, and not that 
it was firmly attached to the next rings to it, and that 
it had been made strong and supple enough to follow 
daily all the movements of the chain in all its windings. 

If man is to become what he ought to be, he must 
be as a child, and do as a child, w^hat makes ^^^ ^^^ 
him happy as a child. He must be as a Erziehung, 
child in everything he can be, but not more, ^^ '^'^^^^ 
without spoiling himself for what he will become 



130 PESTALOZZrS EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

in his position and rank of life as a man. That is the 
first principle of a good education. 

Advantages of the Education of Former Times — That 
is why Pestalozzi has a respect for the education of 
former times. The great secret of the education of 
our forefathers consisted in that in all ranks of life 
they profited as soon as possible by the help of the 
children in the work of the house. This aim led them 
infinitely more easily to the chief points of view of 
the true education of man than our new theories. 

When we examine the results produced by this old 
method of education embodied in those men who by 
their life, by their management of their households, 
by their conspicuously wise conduct in their ranks of 
life and in their calling prove that they have been 
well educated, we almost always observe that the 
actual causes of their excellent education are not their 
university studies, not scientific system, but their 
domestic situation, the circumstances, opinions, and 
customs of their parents and relations, and a thou- 
sand other things which the present time neglects as 
insignificant. 

Thus a wise father says, I owe m}^ good fortune 
and happiness, and the happiness of my house, to one 
of my father's servants, whose strictness compelled 
me to do hundreds of things in the house which, but 
for him, I should have neglected. Now I see clearly 
that that has made me what I am. 

My father, says another, brought me up as if I 
should have to earn by my own exertions everything 
he left me, and experience has proved to me that with- 
out this wise precaution I should certainly have lost 
all he did leave me. 



AIM AND THEORY OF EDUCATION 131 

Again, a third would say, I was kept to my call- 
ing or my business, as if my head, and my heart, and 
all my live senses were intended for nothing else than 
to live and die in my father's workshop, and now 
I perfectly see that I owe all I have become in the 
world, and outside the workshop, to the circumstance 
that I had to spend my youth so perpetually in it. 

And these statements are easily understood if we 
consider that most of the trades, pastimes, and occu- 
pations of men are of such a nature that they cannot be 
proj^erly followed unless they absorb a man entirely, 
both body and soul. 

According to the theories on education of our time, 
on the other hand, it is the accessory which plays the 
chief part ; people cannot invent enough means to let 
children enjoy their liberty as long as possible, i.e. 
leave them unaccustomed to the poor cart of life, to 
which, after all, they must be harnessed in the 
end. 

Games as Methods of Education — Thus people rack 
their brains to invent games to attract children's 
attention to what they want to teach, them.^ Our 
fathers played when their work was done, and that is 
certainly better than playing before, or at the same 
time as work ; they knew nothing of all the arts by 
which we attract children's attention ; but they made 
them at an early age do all sorts of things, and thereby 
naturally made them without any arts attentive to 
what they taught them. 

He who must do many things every day, and all sorts 
of things, and is made to do them well, will certainly 

1 The Philanthropinists are here especially alluded to. Vide Pin- 
loche, La Ee/orme de Veducation en Allemagne au 18* Steele, p. 227. 



132 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

be educated in the power of concentrating his attention, 
and once one has learned to concentrate one's attention 
on what one is doing, one does so in learning too, and 
the desired result is attained. 

But we turn the method the other way round, and 
want to fix our children's attention on strange and 
artificial objects, before their minds have been 
trained by father and mother, by the help of house- 
work and the attention it demands, and prepared for 
the more general artificial attention in study and 
school. 

That is putting the cart before the horse because it 
looks interesting, and then trying to make this piece 
of folly less conspicuous by making the cart go by 
machinery. 

Idlers are only pleased by tricks, and generally are 
free of their money to people who prance like fiery 
steeds ; but we who are of a different sort must not 
be surprised if such teams do not go well, or for 
long. 

For the educating of man to be a machine, or to cut 
capers, can never turn out well. 

The Family and not the School is the Centre of Edu- 
cation — He who works early and late at his business 
and happy and serene enjoys the blessing of his indus- 
try, his virtue, and his uprightness by the side of a 
virtuous wife and fond children, cannot easily go es- 
sentially wrong in their education. 

Thus Pestalozzi always comes back to this conclu- 
sion, that instead of founding training colleges for 
tutors and schoolmasters, we ought to facilitate and 
retain everything which makes men worthy, intelli- 
gent fathers, and prosperous citizens, i.e. what a prince 



AIM AND THEORY OF EDUCATION 133 

must aim at if he wishes to give a truly good educa- 
tion to the children of his kingdom. 

Responsihility of Rulers. — Thus the happiness of 
Europe does not depend on the progress of those 
branches of knowledge which we comprise under the 
name of philosophy, which however so rarely help the 
poor to their right, or to their bread ; but it depends 
far more on princes again becoming fathers in their 
houses, and learning to consider the needs of their 
own concern. 

When shall we give up this abuse of words ? 

It is of the greatest consequence in the world that 
the man who has something to do should consider his 
duty as his concern. 

If the prince, the magistracy, and the innumerable 
army of their official servants, philosophical or other- 
wise, were to consider the peasant from as intelligent 
a point of view as a planter does his slaves, i.e. as 
merchandise, the bad quality of which would have a 
direct influence on his money-bags, the miserable 
lower classes would be very differently cared for to 
what they are now, and the education of citizens 
and of peasants would certainly become better than 
it is. 

But our philosophers dream in heights, and our 
princes live in heights where they lose sight of the 
things of common life. 

And the lower classes which obey such leaders body 
and soul are not accustomed to pay attention to the 
intrinsic value of the education of their children, as 
the merchant does to the intrinsic value of his mer- 
chandise. Thus the reason of the decadence of the 
lower classes is clear. 



134 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

Primary Education is fotmded on the Primary Needs 
of Mankind — The first needs of man are corporal 
and sensual, and the satisfaction of these needs is 
what makes the first educating impression on the child, 
i.e. it is the first foundation of his education, and the 
first development of his powers and dispositions rests 
on it. 

More dependent and helpless than any other crea- 
ture on earth, the child at the mother's breast, and on 
his nurse's lap, feels its first impressions of morality 
in the vague feeling of love and gratitude which are 
almost always kept purest in the poor man by the 
feeling of his weakness and of his perpetual need. 

The child's corporal needs, then, are the foundation 
of the development of his powers. They conduct him 
to the twofold foundation of all true human wisdom 
and virtue, i.e. to love and gratitude, the basis of all 
human morality. 

The progress of the morality of man is in fact 
nothing else than the extension, the immediate de- 
velopment, the quickening, and the determining of 
the sentiments of gratitude and love which the baby 
already feels when satisfied, refreshed, and caressed. 
Pestalozzi is firmly of opinion that we should leave 
children on this simple path. 

All the success of education depends on the fashion 
in which a child has learned to satisfy his external 
and bodily needs, and the educator ought not to be dis- 
couraged, if, for a long time, he has to confine his 
attention to the senses and bodily needs of the child. 

Nature has enveloped man's higher faculties, as it 
were, with a shell ; if you break this shell before it 
opens of itself, you uncover an unfinished pearl and 



AIM AND THEORY OF EDUCATION 135 

destroy the treasure of the life which you ought to 
have kept for your child. 

The premature development of mind and heart de- 
stroys man's true forces. 

When children round me cry for bread and waste 
their time, while I solve. problems in algebra or dream 
of the needs of the state which are satisfied without 
my help, or if I expound to them my dreams on things 
eternal, I fail to perform the first duty which man owes 
his Maker, the citizen his country, and a father his 
child, for there is no doubt that this first duty is to 
become a good father and to care for wife and child. 

Disadvantages of General Rules in Education — That 
is why the first and most essential rule of education is 
to consider most attentively the individual position of 
each child. All more general rules on education which 
consider not a definite, single individual, but the whole 
human race, easily lead astray. 

Man is at all times incapable of seizing general, 
wide points of view, and, on the other hand, very 
clever in seizing a definite single object, and master- 
ing it in all its details. It is easier to find hundreds 
capable of deducing correct principles of education 
from the observation of their own children than one 
who could render himself (by meditations on Nature 
and the general needs of man) fitted to educate one 
single child suitably to the needs of his position. 

You are so-and-so, and you will have to be this and 
that, in such and such a manner, our fathers used to 
say, and kept firmly in view what they wanted, what 
they could do, and what ought to be, and their chil- 
dren generally prospered in this narrow path marked 
out for them. 



136 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

But we say, a man may become all sorts of things, 
and a child must be prepared for anything that may 
happen. And we make to ourselves images of the 
humanity we have no knowledge of, and we pay no 
attention to the boy we call Hans, and the boy be- 
comes a good-for-nothing fellow, because, lost in our 
dreams of humanity, we forget Hans, in whom the 
human being whom we wish to educate has grown up. 

True rules of human education must not only be 
true in themselves, but also in respect of the persons 
from whom we must expect the application. And in 
this respect, the principle of grounding the first de- 
velopment of the human powers on work in the house 
is conspicuously true, because father and mother, who 
in general are, and ought to be, the only educators of 
humanity, are always conducted by hundreds of cir- 
cumstances in their households to this principle. 

The Threefold Aim of Education : to fix the At- 
tention, to form, the Judgment, and to elevate the Senti- 
ments — To fix the child's attention, to sharpen and 
exercise his faculty of judgment, and to lift up his 
heart to noble sentiments is undoubtedly the essence 
of all the aims of education, and the exercising of chil- 
dren in housework is most certainly eminently adapted 
to further the attainment of this threefold aim. 

Work is always of itself the surest means of fixing 
the attention, because it is not impossible to do work 
well without sustained attention, and the variety 
which the housework of which children are capable 
offers, develops their capacity of fixing their attention 
on several different things at the same time. 

And just so man never exercises his faculty of judg- 
ment to more purpose than when he is early put to 



AIM AND THEORY OF EDUCATION 137 

many kinds of work ; for all kinds of work and every 
occupation whatsoever make such demands on the 
faculties that the lack of a correct judgment makes 
itself felt at every turn. 

Finally, with regard to the elevation of the senti- 
ments of the heart, and the paving of the way for all 
domestic and civic virtue, the practice of prompt, 
cheerful, childlike obedience to parents, relations, and 
other members of the household is so obviously most 
surely attained by early exercise in work in the house, 
and childlike participation in domestic concerns, that 
it is clear that no other means could take its place. 

Superiority of Home Influence to Books and Methods 
— Books and artificial methods cannot in any respect 
be a substitute for home education; the best story, 
the most touching picture, in a book is for the child, 
as it were, a vision in a dream, without connection, 
without harmony, or inner truth ; but all that hap- 
pens before the child's eyes in the living room at 
home is naturally connected in his mind with hun- 
dreds of previous similar pictures of the same kind, 
consequently has inner truth for the child. That is 
why he can be so easily led by intercourse with mem- 
bers of his household and neighbours to a correct 
knowledge of men, and to an unhurried perception, 
while it is exceedingly difficult to attain this end by 
the help of books or of artificial methods of education. 

How many times it is unwearying patience in 
slowly turning a monotonous wheel, how often a fixed 
attention to a thousand little things, which insures 
peace in our homes, and how often are the dancing 
steps and the flight of genius to which we wish to 
raise our children the ruin of all domestic peace and 



138 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

happiness. And yet we continue to dream, and daily- 
neglect more and more to teacli our children this care- 
ful attention to what they are doing, this inexhaustible 
patience under the inevitable, and this rigorous order- 
liness which make the happiness of life. 

Vei'bal Education and Practical Education — Man is 
so little destined to spend his life in chattering, and 
needs so much bread, which he cannot find without 
work, that it is incomprehensible that we should 
drive him so forcibly to the one and so noticeably 
neglect the other. 

It is by early accustoming a child to the work which 
will earn bread for his family that we make out of 
children men who fit into their hole wherever we put 
them ; while children who only receive a verbal educa- 
tion, when grown up, are always square pegs in round 
holes. 

Disadvantages of General d priori Principles for the 
Knowledge of Truth — Children whose knowledge has 
been forced, and who have been prematurely taught 
general principles based upon no actual experience, 
are like hens who hatch before they have laid their 
eggs. 

He who works hard, and learns much by experience, 
and thereby hits on general rules and principles in the 
things with which he has most to do, proceeds more 
surely, has in the course of his life what he needs 
where and when he needs it. But the philosophy of 
the man whose head has been early filled with gen- 
eral rules and principles, results of experiences which 
are not his own, and of lives which resemble his in 
no particular, and then will nevertheless apply these 
principles, although he does not know the facts from 



AIM AND THEORY OF EDUCATION 139 

which they have been deduced, resembles the cheer- 
ful, childish chatter of town boys, who meet in their 
walks farmers driving a load of straw, and talk about 
their beautiful waggon of hay. 

General rules, before man' s mind has been trained 
to observation of single facts, to separation of kinds 
and species, to investigation of detail and to consider- 
ation of the different points of view from which every 
object may be regarded, always lead men away from 
the true sense of truth, and from all foundation of 
true philosophical knowledge. 

First learn your trade, and then, when you know 
it, you can talk about it, our forefathers used to say. 
But we teach our children to prophesy before they can 
spell; to chatter before they can work; and to guess 
before they can measure. 

Among the common people and the lower classes 
things still go on, thank goodness, in the old way. 
Among artisans and in all callings in which one only 
pays work, and not chatter and show, boys are still 
taught not to talk of a trade until they know it. 

Special or Professional Training — Special education 
for a state of life or a profession is only a sowing of 
the land, which is to be ploughed and pre- idee der 
pared for the seed by human education, ^iem,-, § 75. 
Where the land has not been ploughed, sowing of 
seed is in vain. Every special education which is 
not grounded on the foundation of human education 
misses its aim. 



CHAPTER III 

ON THE EDUCATION OF LOWER CLASSES 

Causes of the ignorance of lower classes. — Pestalozzi's essential 
aim. — On the education of the poor. 

Causes of the Ignorance of the Lower Classes — If 

the instruction of the lower classes has been neglected 

in Europe, that is due to psychological as 
WieGertrud ,, T-' • , \/ i.-T 

ihre Kinder well as historical causes. r or while some 

lehrt, IX, arts and sciences rose to a very great height, 
^ * all the foundations of natural education were 

lost. No part of the world ever rose to such a height, on 
the one hand, while, on the other, none ever fell so low. 
"With some arts and sciences, its head, like the statue 
of the prophet, reached the clouds ; but the instruc- 
tion of the lower classes, which ought to have been 
the fundament, is, like the feet of this gigantic statue, 
the most miserable, fragile, and worthless clay. The 
invention of printing was the cause of this lack of 
proportion between the advantages of the upper classes 
and the misery of the lowest. That Europe should 
overrate the influence of the invention of printing on 
learning was in the beginning natural enough, also that 
it should have let this invention dazzle it and make 
it giddy; but it is incomprehensible that it should 
still be a.ffected by that giddiness, and let it grow into 

140 



ON THE EDUCATION OF LOWER CLASSES 141 

a nervous fever which ruins body and mind. It is 
unheard of that the use of the five senses, and espe- 
cially the sense of sight, the most general tool of sense- 
'perception, should have been reduced to contemplate 
the idol of the new knowledge, letters, and books, so 
that the eyes, and even men themselves, are become 
mere instruments to read letters. The Keformation 
has, by the weakening of its peculiar spirit and by 
the worshipping of its dead forms and theories, which 
is the necessary consequence of that weakening, com- 
pleted what the invention of printing began, in that, 
instead of resolutely attacking the public stupidity of 
a monastic and feudal world, it has even taught it 
abstract ideas which have fixed the world all the more 
firmly in the mere knowledge of words. 

Just as a devastating river, stopped in its course by 
some fallen rock, takes a new direction, and continues 
its ravages from year to year, from generation to gen- 
eration, so the culture of the people of Europe, after 
having left, in consequence of the united action of 
these two great events, the smooth bed of sense-percep- 
tion, and after having taken a general, direction which 
is capricious and in no prepared channel, has continued 
from year to year and generation to generation its dev- 
astating action on men, until it has at last brought us, 
after centuries on this path, to the perfection of the 
general tonguey exercise of our knowledge, and through 
it to the tonguey exercise of unbelief, all of which is 
by no means calculated to conduct us to the calm wis- 
dom of faith and love. In any case it is irrefutable 
that the all-devouring verbal book-learning of the cul- 
ture of our time has resulted in making us discontented 
to remain what we are. 



142 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

PestalozzVs Essential Aim — Pestalozzi's essential 
Ibid. VII ^ii^ is to render the instruction of the 
§§ 74, 75. lower classes possible in the family, the 
first instruction to be given by the mother. 

People object that the mother will not give it. 

Pestalozzi does not let himself be stopped by this, 
and declares he will pursue his way all the same. 

For people disparage the lower classes, because they 
neither know nor respect them. Mere word-quibblers, 
mere bookworms, have always been, and always will 
be, the same. Pestalozzi will therefore say with Him 
who defended the cause of truth of the people and of 
love against the errors of the scribes, "Father, for- 
give them ; for they know not what they do." 

People sometimes say it suffices to cultivate the 
heart of the people, their feelings of affection and 
Idee der love, but that it is not necessary to culti- 
Elem., § 117. yate the intellect at all. Pestalozzi indig- 
nantly refutes this monstrous assertion. If, on the 
one hand, he says, it is impossible to cultivate the 
intellect of the lower classes without cultivating their 
feelings, on the other, it is impossible to elevate their 
feelings without cultivating their intellect. 

"I had, and have no intention of teaching the 
world any art or any science, — I know none, — but 

I did, and do desire to facilitate in a 
ihre Kinder general manner the acquisition of the 
lehrt.Yli, elements of all arts and sciences to the 

lower classes, and to open to the faculties of 
the poor and weak the doors to art, which are the doors 
to humanity, and, if I can, burn down the barricade 
which, in spite of the empty boasts of our vaunted 



ON THE EDUCATION OF LOWER CLASSES 143 

general enlightenmentj puts the middle classes of 
Europe, with respect to individual power, far behind 
savages, in excluding ten men out of eleven from the 
right of every member of society to instruction, or at 
any right from the possibility of making use of that 
instruction." 

"1 have worked indefatigably for the last half 
century at the simplification of the processes of the 
instruction of the lower classes, especially gcjiy^anen- 
at its most elementary stage, and at bring- gesang, 
ing them nearer to the course followed by ^*^^^^^^- 
Nature herself in the development of the human facul- 
ties. I have certainly handled much awkwardly, and 
have therefore brought down infinite suffering on my- 
self; but I have borne it hitherto patiently without ever 
slackening in my earnest striving after my aim.'^ 

To those who declare that "the elevation of the 

people is a dream," Pestalozzi answers: "No, it is 

no dream ! I will put the means to ele- _. _ 

Wz€ Gcvtvud 
vate the lower classes in the hand of , the ihre Kinder 

mother, in the hand of the child, and in ^^^^^ i> 

S& 17 IS 

the hand of innocence, and the wicked will ' 

be reduced to silence, and no longer utter the words, 

^ It is a dream.' " 

Pestalozzi's education will not raise men out of their 
proper sphere, for it tends precisely to j^^^ ^^^ 
prevent the pupil taught by it from em- Elem., 
barking on a literary or scientific career, §§ 2* i>- 4 . 
if he is not destined to it by marked ability, and by 
the circumstances of his life. 

But his choice once made, he will dip deep into his 



144 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

subject and will subordinate all other branches of 
knowledge to this one he has chosen. 

Thereby the professional and the working classes 
will both gain, and this will be a great advantage from 
a social point of view. 

On the Education of the Poor — Just as every man 
ought to be educated for his station, just so the poor 
IsELiN ought to be educated for poverty. In every 

Epheme- state of life man's virtue should be exercised 
nden, Yill. -^^ ^^iq limits of the obstacles and difficulties 
which await him later on. The essential part of the 
preparation for every career consists then in training 
for the difficulties of that career in patience, and in 
the subduing of all the desires which might become 
later on an obstacle in the accomplishment of the chief 
duties. This truth is above all important in the edu- 
cation of the poor, i.e. in the preparation for the 
hardest of all the states of life. The poor must then 
be fitted to earn their livelihood, and must not be 
given desires above their station. 

That is why Pestalozzi sees in the combination of 
industrial pursuits and education the most sure means 
of realising these conditions to the great advantage 
of the state. 

In ordinary benevolent institutions for children, 
their capacities are not developed from this point of 
view, so that the state, far from profiting by them, 
maintains a nursery of uneducated persons, incapable 
of enduring the hardships of the life of their class, 
and having none of the technical abilities which 
would enable them to rise out of it, and consequently 
pass from the orphanage to the hospital. 



ON THE EDUCATION OF LOWER CLASSES 145 

Pestalozzi thinks that poor children from six to 
eighteen years of age might earn enough to pay for 
their education, and even make profits by their work. 

Pestalozzi does not, however, lose sight of the aim 
of education, which is, according to him, morality. 
" Man is capable of being guided to good in all cir- 
cumstances and in all kinds of work." 

Now children can be as easily educated to morality 
in an industrial establishment as elsewhere. 

But one must strive to attain the aim. The heart 
is only guided by the heart. 

The kind of work matters little, for no work is 
moral or immoral in itself. 



CHAPTER IV 

PRIVATE EDUCATION AND PUBLIC EDUCATION 

Respective advantages of the two systems of education. — 
School. — Conditions which the school ought to fulfil. 

Respective Advantages of the Two Systems of Education 
— Home bringing up offers in itself better and purer 
means for the application of the principles of ele- 
Idee der mentary education than any school, public 
Elem., or private. Unfortunately the lowest classes 

^^ ■ are degenerated, presumption and weakness 

prevail in the middle classes, and in the higher ranks 
there is an almost absolute lack of power and truth in 
all the foundations of the pure home life, so that 
un surmountable obstacles stand in the way of the 
application of the processes of elementary education. 

Just as the home life of some children has the great- 
est advantages, especially in preserving a natural and 
easy tone, on the other hand the common life of many 
children together has advantages, as regards the de- 
velopment of the power and truth of real life, which 
can seldom be attained in the narrow circle of home 
life. Cannot the two be combined ? I know that it 
is difficult ; but I feel, too, that this combination must 
be the aim of a good boarding-school. It is the aim 
of ours. I know that we are still far from having 
attained our aim ; but also that we try to attain it, 

146 



PRIVATE AND PUBLIC EDUCATION 147 

and feel the possibility of its attainment, even in the 
midst of the greatest obstacles. 

School — A boarding-school, conducted in a fatherly- 
spirit and acting on a childlike spirit, is one of the best 
means of mitigating the degeneracy which takes place 
even in the real home life, and at the same time of 
creating anew the lacking domestic spirit among 
men. 

From whatever point of view we look at it, he who 
feels himself, in spirit and in truth, the brother of 
hundreds, is a higher being than he who is only the 
most loving brother of one. If a boarding-school rises 
to the power of developing this feeling, its blessing 
is immeasurable. 

That is the aim, difficult doubtless to attain, which 
Pestalozzi has striven after from his youth up. 

Should one send the child to school? iMd., 
Before answering this question, it is §§277-285. 
necessary to lay down the conditions which the 
school must fulfil. 

Conditions which the School must Fulfil — The school 
must keep to the spirit which prevails at home, and 
add to the knowledge and power of the child what 
the circumstances of the home life could not give 
him. Does the school do that? Does it keep the 
child to the course of innocence, faith, and love, which 
he has begun at his mother's side? Does it firmly 
attach the power and knowledge which it can give 
the child to what his mother and his home life have 
already given him, to what he knows, what he has, 
what he can already do? Are the processes of the 
school education suitable to the child's condition, and 



148 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

will they begin exactly at the point where the child 
has left off and take this point as its starting-point in 
all directions ? Then, yes ; even if the school only 
does half of all this, you must send him to it. 

The school must become, from the moral point of 
view, the continuation of the moral life which the 
child has led under his mother's care, and must 
strengthen his religious sense which was the basis of 
it; from an intellectual point of view it must con- 
tinue and expand the free, living observation of 
Nature and, in this respect, tend to transform the life 
in Nature into the life of Art. Its processes must in 
all respects be a continuation of those of the mother; 
similarly, from a physical point of view. 

But if the school does nothing of all this, if its 
processes and its exercises are diametrically opposed 
to the natural education which the child has had at 
home, if it confuses what the other had ordered, if it 
brings to a standstill what the other had set in motion, 
if it sends to sleep what the other had awakened, if it 
kills what the other had quickened, it is not capable 
of giving the child what he needs. 

But as often as not the mother is not capable of 
educating the child in conformity with Nature and 
consequently does not trouble herself as to whether 
the school is. 

Until both school and mother form the highest con- 
ception of the spirit of education, it is impossible to 
make home education the foundation of a natural 
school education, or to educate while instructing, or to 
instruct while educating. 

Elementary education alone can fill this great gap. 



BOOK II 

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

CHAPTER I 
CRITICISM OF THE EXISTING METHODS 

Defects of the education of the time. — Error of rationalism. 
^- Culture of the Greeks. — Elementary education and the 
Greeks. — Elementary education and the lower classes. — 
Elementary education and the hitherto existing methods. — 
The catechetical method. — The Socrat.ic method. — Fatal 
consequences of the verbal instruction of schools. — Necessity 
of a thorough reform. — School and play. 

Defects of the Education of the Time — The school 
education of our time does nothing but sew the orna- 
ments of a superficial and useless know- j^^g 
ledge of many things (Vielwissen) on the der Elem., 
coat of vanity of our empty being, not yet ^^ '^^-^^■ 
developed in its essential qualities, as a tailor's appren- 
tice trims with motley fringes a coat which does not fit 
the man for whom it is made. 

Barbarians are at least strong in one respect. We 
are not even that. We imagined we were in many 
respects, thinking that a higher culture would de- 
velop the forces of our nature in all directions. Now 
this higher culture has not done so; it was for the 
human race not a higher culture; it was in general 

149 



150 PESTALOZZrS EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

nothing but a means of weakening men. It was with- 
out moral and inward elevation, it was limited and 
restricted to a superficial and earthly sense, and the 
development of man, as a whole, was not even its aim ; 
and his one-sided development must necessarily fail, 
because it found in the pure general development of 
the whole no binding connection and no educational 
basis. Both truth and love were as a rule wanting. 
The faculty of neither was developed. 

The consequence was exactly the same as we see in 
Nature, when a field, in the necessary connected and 
consistent cultivation, finds no general foundation, 
which shall at the same time purify its forces, convey 
nourishment, and inspire life — conditions which are 
necessary if the corn on it is to come to maturity. 
The earth without all this brings forth nothing but 
weeds, which choke the good seed. Now truth and 
love, these fruits of the mind and of the heart, are 
choked in an insufficiently developed mind and heart, 
just as the good seed of the field is choked by weeds. 
For want of sufficient culture men run wild, just as 
plants do. Instead of truth, we have appearances ; 
instead of love, selfishness ; instead of ripened powers, 
presumptuous weakness; instead of the tranquillity 
which the consciousness of inner worth gives, the 
restlessness which the lack of this consciousness neces- 
sarily creates in the human soul — that is our portion. 

Error of Rationalisrn — Lacking equally physical 
education and intellectual education, our generation 
has thrown itself headlong into the deadly sea of a 
hollow, superficial rationalism, and racing after the 
dreams of an easy and pleasant life, has fallen into 
the gulf of the actual world. 



CRITICISM OF EXISTING METHODS 151 

The misfortune of the age is incalculable, that men 
let themselves be deceived by the semblance of an 
outward, superficial enlightenment, which had no 
deeper intellectual education and no higher education 
of the faculties as its foundation. 

People wanted in the weakness of this great error 
to make men reasonable by knowledge, and they could 
neither give them this knowledge in a reasonable man- 
ner nor give them the reason necessary to acquire 
this knowledge. They were far from being able to 
develop in them this faculty of reason, which the cor- 
rect recognition of real objects presumes, and which 
the latter serves to form in its turn. And never- 
theless they maintained they had attained a very high 
level of human culture and were even on the road to 
the high culture of the Greeks. 

Culture of the Greeks — But the Greeks founded 
their education on the development of the human 
faculties by free and independent human life, and 
not on the extension of their knowledge. Their gym- 
nasia were not a sort of philological training college for 
teachers, any more than their humanistic culture was 
founded on the study of foreign languages, ancient 
or modern, nor on Oriental or Egyptian literature, 
although their culture was as little primitive as ours. 
This monstrous error of seeking life in death, instead 
of trying to reanimate death by life, was reserved for 
our time. 

Among the Greeks the special education for calling 
or profession took as its point of starting their general 
education ; their special education did not precede 
their general education. In its turn their general 
education was the work of their civic institutions, of 



152 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

their national strength, of their legislation, of their 
customs. And no one wanted less than they did to 
popularise science. That was reserved for us and 
our time, to bring up children on science by way of 
giving them the appearance of strength, while leaving 
them in their state of childhood. The Greeks did not 
do that and did not want to do so. They made men 
out of their children by education. Then the strong- 
est of these men, naturally of their own accord, strove 
to raise themselves to the higher standard which their 
scientific culture showed them. Toward this end I 
believe we ought anew to strive, and decidedly, as 
much as lies in our power, by the very same means 
which the Greeks used to attain it. 

Elementary Education and the Greeks — Are we 
approaching this condition by elementary education ? 
Pestalozzi thinks so. Just as we recognise in the 
divine element of Christianity the most perfect means 
of elevating the morality of our race, so we find, from 
the intellectual point of view, in the model which 
Greece offers us, the most perfect which has ever 
been given to humanity. And we believe that it lies 
in the spirit of elementary education to lead our race, 
through the necessary consequences of truth, in the 
development of our forces to the very same results, 
as those to which the culture of the Greeks had 
conducted a great proportion of that nation. The 
Greeks had for their education gymnasia, i.e. actual 
places where they could devote themselves to physical 
and intellectual exercises. Our time has instead 
schools, i.e. places where the pupils are morally weak- 
ened and taught tricks, for the greater part of our 
schools are nothing else. Now we believe that the 



CRITICISM OF EXISTING METHODS 153 

method of elementary education is calculated to rees- 
tablish, these gymnasia and also to transform ele- 
mentary schools, following a conception higher even 
than that of the Greeks, into places of physical and 
intellectual exercise which will fit them for the bat- 
tle for truth and love, and thereby work successfully 
against the manifold erroneous opinions which have 
found room in the education of the people. 

Elementary Education and. the Lower Classes — We 
give ourselves at the present time all imaginable pains 
to teach the lower classes reading, writing, j^gg ^g^ 
and arithmetic, without troubling ourselves Elem., 
as to whether they can also speak and think. §§ 112-119. 
Everything, even what is best in our efforts for the 
lower classes, suffers under the weakness of our schools. 

Elemental^ Education and the hitherto Existing Meth- 
ods — However, Pestalozzi has incorporated in his 
elementary education everything good which ever ex- 
isted in methods of education. For the simple and 
straightforward educational method of our forefathers 
was much nearer to the principles of. elementary edu- 
cation than the artificially refined education of our 
epoch of weakness and corruption. Then no one main- 
tained, as they do nowadays, that the lower classes 
have no need of a good education, one satisfying the 
claims of our nature in its whole extent, nor of a 
school which shall vigorously strive to improve it. 
No honoured man in the land uttered the sentence, 
We do not owe the lower classes a good education, 
because they will not know how to make use of it; 
we may not give them such, because they are obliged 
to earn their bread by the sweat of their face. 



154 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

People thought at that time that those sublime words, 
" In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," were 
addressed to all men. We must then return to the 
opinion of our forefathers. 

Some men dare to say that we ought only to busy 
ourselves in cultivating the heart of the people ; it is 
not necessary to do anything for their mind. They 
themselves can do that better than any one else. Re- 
markable objection ! It is impossible to cultivate 
humanly the minds of the people without elevating 
their hearts; and, conversely, it is impossible to ele- 
vate their hearts without also cultivating their minds. 

We must remark on some of the contradictions of 
the adversaries of everything new, which are decidedly 
new. When Lavater offered sustenance to the heart 
of the people, and fostered their belief in the literal- 
ness of the Holy Scriptures, these people cried out at 
the top of their voices, " The heart is not everything, 
faith is not everything; the people need intelligence 
and intellectual culture as well for their life." And 
now that elementary education addresses itself to the 
mind as well, they cry again, "Away with it! the 
heart is all that matters for the people ! " Of a truth, 
they are like those men of whom it is written, " We 
have piped unto you, and ye have not danced ; we 
have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented." 

The Catechetical Method — The catechetical method 
is far from being a real exercise of the reasoning 
faculties. It is a mere verbal analysis of 
ihre Kinder complicated sentences, and has so far value 
lehrt, II, as preparatory exercise in the gradual elu- 
^^ ~ ' cidation of conceptions as it lays the sepa- 



CRITICISM OF EXISTING METHODS 155 

rated words and sentences singly before the child's eyes, 
disentangled for its more thorough perception. But 
in spite of this value, the catechetical method applied 
to these abstract notions is nothing but a repeating, 
in parrot fashion, of words which the children have 
not understood. 

The Socratic Method — As to the Socratic method, 
it is impossible with children who lack at the same 
time the background of previously acquired knowledge 
and the outward instrument of the knowledge of lan- 
guage. 

Thus Pestalozzi rejects the Socratic method, because 
he thinks we should not make the judgment of chil- 
dren, on any subject whatsoever, appear more ripe 
than it is in reality; but we should rather keep it 
back as long as possible, until they have considered 
every object which they are to discuss, from all points 
of view, and under many conditions, and until they 
are absolutely familiarised with the words which 
designate its nature and qualities. 

Fatal Consequences of the Verbal^ Instruction of 
Schools — Necessity of a Thorough Reform — The super- 
ficialness of the routine exercises which schwanen- 
children are put through generally incites gesang, § 88. 
to thoughtless chatter on subjects which should serve 
to instruct us. When the child does not understand 
what he is to learn, and nevertheless has to pretend 
that he understands it, thoughtless chatter on what 
he does not understand follows as a matter of course. 
His learning itself resolves itself into learning to chat- 
ter on what he does not understand. It is psychologi- 
cally correct that, and very easy to explain how, on 



156 tEStALOZZrS EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

this road one can come to speak fluently about things, 
at which one has had to work so hard and so long, 
that one is utterly sick of them, without having come 
to a clear insight of what they are and what good they 
are. 

Our monastic instruction, by its neglect of all psy- 
chology, has not only removed us in all subjects from 
Schwanen- the supreme end of education, which is clear- 
gesang, ^91. ness of ideas, but has even undoubtedly 
resulted in depriving us of the means which Nature 
herself, independent of all art, offers us to help us in 
the rendering distinct of our conceptions, and also in 
making impossible for us the use of these means, by 
the ruining of our inner selves. 

Most of our public schools not only give us noth- 
ing, but actually extinguish that in us which man 
possesses in himself without schools, and what every 
savage possesses to a degree of which we have no 
conception. 

A man who has been educated by the monastic 
method to become a wordy fool, is as a matter of fact 
more inaccessible to truth than a savage, and more 
incapable than any one of profiting by the guidance of 
Nature, and by what she does to render our ideas clear 
and precise. 

"Our school education seemed to me like a great 
house, the upper story of which was dazzling in its 
Wie Gertrud ^^S^ ^.nd perfect art, but is only inhabited 
ihre Kinder by a few. The middle story is inhabited 
Ze/irf, IV, § 3. -j^^ more, but they have no staircases by 
which they can go up to the upper story in human 
fashion, and if any of them were in their need to show 



CRITICISM OF EXISTING METHODS 157 

a desire of climbing up to this upper story in animal 
fashion, if they are seen, they get their fingers pretty 
generally knocked, and here and there even an arm or 
a leg which they used in this climbing up broken ; in 
the third, the lowest, lives finally a countless herd of 
men, who have exactly the same right to sunshine and 
fresh air as the ones above ; but they are not only left 
to themselves in the horrid darkness of windowless 
holes, but they are even rendered incapable, by band- 
ages and blinders, of raising their eyes up to the 
highest story." 

It is then of prime necessity that the educational 
cart of all Europe be not only better drawn, ibid., 
it must rather be turned round and started ^> § 18. 
on a new road. 

Our one-sided, superficial, thoughtless use of the 
tongue must first be killed and buried before it will 
again be possible to produce truth in our race by in- 
struction and language. 

And we must not content ourselves with half-meas- 
ures, we must lay aside in this instruction all lesson 
books which in a single one of their lines assume that 
the child can talk before he has learned how. 

School and Play ^ — • The spirit of ordinary pedagogy 
shows itself everywhere contraiy to morality, even 
when actually appealing to morality, and j^^g 
most conspicuously in the opposition which der Elem., 
it sets up between instruction and education ^^ ~ * 
and the inner and outward life of the child. It even 
sets up this opposition as a principle, viz., that a spirit 
must prevail in school hours quite different to that 
which prevails in free time and play hours. And at 



158 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

the same time there is a most pronounced tendency to 
turn school into play and play into school. 

The opinion, that the spirit which prevails in les- 
son time should be quite different to that which pre- 
vails in playtime, would however be quite right, if we 
consider the matter without losing sight of the higher 
view of the unity of our nature. 

From this point of view, the child must be educated 
by freedom to necessity, by necessity to freedom. If 
a spirit prevails in lesson hours other than that which 
prevails in play hours, it is because the spirit of obedi- 
ence and necessity prevails in school hours, and the 
spirit of freedom and independence in play hours. 

Necessity, strict order, unvarying obedience to rules, 
should prevail in lesson hours. The spirit of the 
teacher and his treatment of the children should never- 
theless however be purely human, i.e. a living and free 
spirit during school hours as at all other times. He 
ought only to make the subject taught stand out in its 
strict limitations and exclusiveness, so that the child 
may clearly see the thing itself and no shadows, and 
may not give himself up to play. The recreation hour 
should free him from this restraint. In it the single 
isolated object should be relegated to the background, 
the child should move freely, his life should be re- 
flected in the life of all, and no fixed form, no restraint, 
hem the flow of his inner self. 

That is the true meaning of the difference necessary 
between the needs of school hours and those of play- 
times. But thousands who lay down this principle do 
not take the unity of nature as their starting-point, 
but consider these unequal needs of the position and 
circumstances of the child as needs of his unequal 



CRITICISM OF EXISTING METHODS 159 

nature. They separate instruction from education, 
and even demand a spirit in the instruction of lan- 
guage different to that in the teaching of mathematics, 
to that which prevails in the teaching of natural his- 
tory, to that in the teaching of singing. But the spirit 
of education must always, at every instant, be the 
same ; and as the spirit of instruction must always be 
the same as the spirit of education, so the spirit of 
instruction must be the same in every subject taught. 
This applies equally to play hours and to school hours. 
If you give the child the food necessary for the ful- 
ness of his life as a whole in school hours and in play- 
time, your child will be as animated in your school 
hour as in your playtime. There is truly no need for 
laws and principles for the one different to those for 
the other. 

The child of the good mother lives every hour of the 
day in the same spirit ; he lives his full contented life 
in his lesson time as in his playtime. And educator ! 
human educator ! is he to live only half his life in 
your lesson time ? Eeject this erroneous theory, edu- 
cator ! It tends to kill the child whom you ought to 
make alive ; and you can make him alive, you can at 
every moment of your instruction. You can, you 
ought to give his heart and his mind at every moment 
of the lesson hour a truer, higher life than he lives 
during his play hour. If you can, if you do so, he is 
delighted to feel conscious, during school, of a power 
higher and nobler than that which he is conscious of 
during play. But, to be sure, it is true that if you are 
not capable of taking complete possession of the whole 
being of the child by your teaching in his lesson time, 
and of animating him to a higher life than he leads in 



160 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

his playtime, then it is certainly natural enough that 
a spirit will animate the child in your lesson time very 
different to that which animates him in playtime. On 
this path you will certainly never attain to making 
the same spirit prevail among the children in school 
as in play. You must give this soul, hungering after 
development, the food and nourishment which his own 
nature craves, and not that which your whims and 
your erroneous ideas suggest. If you do not, do not 
be surprised if you do not attain your aim. 

If you see a senseless man loading his starving 
beast of burden instead of feeding it, you are not sur- 
prised to see it evince a very different spirit to what 
it does when, freed from its load, it finds its favourite 
food on the open heath. 

But out of ten schoolmasters who fall into this error, 
there are nine, perhaps, who are as heavily and as un- 
naturally laden with their school as their school chil- 
dren are with them. We bestow our compassion on 
them from our hearts, and pity them for living, as we 
do, at an epoch when men consider the needs of human 
nature as little for their schoolmasters as they do for 
their school children. 



CHAPTER II 

NATURE, AIM, AND DIVISION OF ELEMENTARY 
EDUCATION 

First education of the child by its mother, — Aim and definition 
of elementary education. — Division of elementary educa- 
tion. — Moral and religious education. — Intellectual educa- 
tion. — Point of starting of intellectual education. — Study of 
languages. — Foreign languages. — The formation of judg- 
ment. — Language, number, form. — Artistic education. — 
The moral element of artistic education. — The intellectual 
element of artistic education. — The physical element of artis- 
tic education. — First sesthetic education. — Technical and 
artistic education. — Physical education. — General human 
character of elementary education. — Impossibility of the 
application of elementary education. — Educating influence 
of life. 

First Education of the Child by its ' Mother — From 
the moment when the mother takes the child on her 
lap, she instructs him by the fact that she ^y r^ f 
brings nearer to his senses the objects which ihre Kinder 
Nature presents to him scattered, at great ichrt, x, 
distances apart, and indistinct, and thus 
makes easy, pleasant, and attractive the operation of 
perception and the cognition which is dependent on it. 

In her ignorance and her innocence, the mother does 
not even know what she is doing. She has no inten- 
tion of instructing her child, she only wants to soothe 

161 



162 PESTALOZZl'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

him, to engage his attention ; and yet she follows the 
sublime course of Nature in its purest simplicity, with- 
out any idea of what Nature is doing through her; 
and yet Nature does a great deal through her : she 
opens the world in this manner to the child, she pre- 
pares him thus for the use of his senses, and for the 
early development of his faculties of attention and 
perception. 

It is our business, then, to continue artificially what 
the mother has begun instinctively. " But in this 
respect we are not as far advanced as the woman of 
Appenzell, who hangs over her child's cradle, in the 
first weeks of its life, a big kite made of many-coloured 
paper, thus indicating exactly the point at which art 
should begin to bring the child to a clear and distinct 
consciousness of the objects of Nature. . . . This 
Appenzell kite is to me what the bull was to the 
Egyptian, — a sacred thing, — and I have done all I 
could to begin my instruction at the point of depar- 
ture chosen by the woman of Appenzell." 

We shall, however, see that Pestalozzi never leaves 
to chance, either at the beginning or later on, the ob- 
jects which are to be presented to the child's senses, 
but does everything to make it possible to pass over 
the accidental and bring the essential in all percep- 
tive cognition before the child's senses even at this 
early age and to make the consciousness of this im- 
pression indelible. 

We shall see that this is the aim of elementary 
education. 

The mother does not recognise any freedom of will 
in the child. As she devotes herself to him in her 



NATURE, AIM, AND DIVISION 163 

love, and satisfies his needs, she exacts from him 
obedience. But just as she raises him to truth by 
the love with which she devotes herself to j^gg 
him, so she raises him to freedom by the der Elem., 
obedience which she exacts from him. She ^^ ^2-54. 
teaches him to walk, so that he may no longer need 
her guidance ; she makes him capable, so that he may 
be able to help himself; to know, so that he may 
himself know what he needs. She is pleased when 
he can do more than she can, when he knows more 
than she does, when he becomes greater than she is. 
The obedience which she exacts is that which his own 
nature and his needs demand. Her will is no other 
than law, which his own reason would impose on the 
child, if he were a man, i.e. free, and to which 
he would submit of his own accord. She believes 
in the reasonableness which will later on unfold itself 
in him, as she believes in her own. At the moment 
when she is exacting obedience from him, yes, by the 
very fact that she does so, and by the manner she 
does so, she expects it from him as something exist- 
ing as a matter of course. She punishes her child, 
she calls him to account, and thereby all unconsciously 
declares him to be a free and reasonable being. His 
weakness is her strength, his needs are her love, and 
her inspiring hope is what he will one day be. She 
gives the child for his practice in moral feeling, 
speech, and action, by which she raises him to inde- 
pendence, a living model in her own moral feeling, 
speech, and action. Her presence, the whole im- 
pression of her being, creates in the child moral con- 
sciousness, the germs and the elements of the idea of 
good. 



164 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

In the same way the idea of his mother creates con- 
scientiousness in the child. The image of his mother, 
which accompanies him everywhere, becomes in itself 
his conscience. She is likewise the first Providence 
he knows. As she judges him, so he learns to judge 
himself. As she by judging him teaches him to 
judge himself, so she shows him in God, when her 
presence is no longer sufficient and her judgment too 
weak, the most high, an omnipresent and omniscient, 
a holy and just judge. She sanctions the precepts 
and laws which she imposes on him, as representative 
of Nature and of the child's conscience, as divine 
commandments, and expands in this way, as the 
judgment, the faculties, and the needs of the child 
expand, his moral disposition to a complete moral 
conception of life and the world. But this conception, 
while it itself expresses, on the one hand, the unvary- 
ing and eternal nature of morality itself, connects 
itself at all poirts to the individuality of the child, 
his sentiments and relations to his brothers and sis- 
ters, his relatives, his fellows, etc. It is, then, in con- 
formity with the progress of the child's development 
in all directions, and is in its essence nothing else but 
the extension of the activity and of the sphere of his 
pristine moral nature. 

Aim of Elementary Education — Elementary educa- 
tion, then, ought to continue under the master, the 
mother's work, in the spirit of the mother, and in the 
spirit of Christianity. It should in no way put itself 
in opposition with the child's former relations of feel- 
ing and disposition, but should bring its whole activity 
into living connection with them. 



NATURE, AIM, AND DIVISION 165 

Definition of Elementary Education — Elementary 
education is nothing else but conformity to schwanen- 
nature in the development and perfecting gesang, 
of the dispositions and faculties of men. ^^ ^~^^' 

But what is human nature ? 

Clearly the complex of dispositions and powers by 
which man distinguishes himself from animals. 

Whence naturally follows that elementary educa- 
tion is that development and perfecting of the powers 
and dispositions of the human heart, the human 
mind, and the human skill which is in accordance 
with nature. Whence again follows the necessity 
of subordinating the claims of our animal nature to 
the higher claims of our inner divine nature. 

Man has a desire to do everything for which he 
feels that he has an inherent power, and that this 
desire of his is involuntary is a consequence of his 
indwelling instinct. 

The sense of this power is the expression of the 
eternal, inextinguishable, and immutable laws which 
form the basis of the course of nature. 

These laws proceed, just as do the powers in which 
they dwell, from the unity of human nature. 

That alone which takes possession of man as a 
whole (heart and mind and hand) is educative in the 
true sense of the word and in accordance with nature ; 
everything which does not take possession of him as 
a whole does not take possession of him in accord- 
ance with nature, and is not, in the true sense of the 
word, humanly educative. 

Every one-sided development of one of our powers 
is no true education, no education in accordance with 
nature; it is only the outward semblance of education, 



166 PESTALOZZrS EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

the resounding brass and the jangling bells of human 
education, and not education itself. The unity of the 
human faculties was given by God. What, therefore, 
God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. 

The laws which are the groundwork of the natural 
development of every one of our faculties are essen- 
tially different, but every one of these single faculties 
is essentially only naturally developed by the simple 
means of its use. 

Man develops love and faith, which are the foun- 
dation of his moral life, naturally only by active love 
and faith. 

The same holds good of thought, the foundation of 
his intellectual life, of his senses, organs, and limbs, 
the outward foundations of the faculties appertaining 
to his skill and calling. 

Man has besides an instinctive tendency to use 
these faculties. But one can augment or diminish 
this tendency. 

Elementary education then, more precisely defined, 
is the result of the efforts of the human race to render 
such assistance to the course of nature in the develop- 
ment and perfection of our faculties as the enlight- 
ened love, the educated reason, and the enlightened 
artistic sense of our race may be capable of. 

Left to itself, the course of nature is only quickened 
by animal instincts. It is the business of our race, it 
IS the aim of elementary education, it is the aim of 
piety and wisdom to animate it humanly and divinely. 

Division of Elementary Education — Elementary 
Idee der education divides itself naturally into 
Elem., § 21. nioral education, intellectual education, 



NATURE, AIM, AND DIVISION 167 

and physical education, which are based respectively 
on the will, the knowledge, and the physical capacity 
of the child, and in their turn form the basis of these 

Moral and Religious Education — Moral elementary 
education is nothing else than the pure development of 
the human will, by the higher sentiments of j^j^^ 
love, gratitude, and faith, in the perfection § 23. 
in which they are expressed in their first blossoming in 
the pure relations between mother and child. 

The aim of this education is the moral perfection of 
our nature ; its means are exercises in striving after 
perfection in moral thought, sentiment, and action. 
Applied to the visible, it reveals itself as morality in 
action (physical ) ; to the invisible, as religion in senti- 
ment or vision (sentimentally hyper-physical). 

As we can only conceive the perfection of morality 
in a higher being, only in God, the first moral aspira- 
tion connects itself with the belief in Grod, which so 
simply and so naturally results from the truth of the 
child's love, gratitude, and faith. 

Tlie Idea of God — The child loves and Schioanen- 
believes before he thinks and acts. gesang,^ 

How are love and faith, the foundation of our moral 
life, developed in the child? — By the constant gratifi- 
cation of his physical needs b}^ the mother, 
to which gratification father and brothers §§ 15-I8. 
and sisters also contribute. 

But the solicitude of the mother to gratify the child's 
needs must not be carried to excess. The enlightened 
mother lives for her child in the service of her love, 
but not in the service of his whims and the selfishness 



168 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

which is excited and quickened in him by his animal 
nature. 

The naturalness of the care with which she conduces 
to the child's repose is not calculated to excite his 
senses, but only to satisfy his sensual needs. 

By this means the first sentiments of love and faith 
are naturally awakened in the infant by its mother, 
and the sentiments of love of and faith in father, 
brother, and sister naturally follow, from which finally 
results love of and faith in God. 

hitellectual Education — Intellectual education again 
is nothing else but the pure development of the fac- 
Idee der ulty of knowledge, i.e. of our faculty of 
Elem., § 24. reason, by the highly simple process of 
making a habit of its use. And as this faculty in its 
essence first connects itself with the perceptive impres- 
sions which the objects of the external world make on 
our senses, secondly rests on the acquired faculty of 
combining, separating, and comparing, as the elements 
of all human knowledge, these original impressions, or 
rather the simple results of their action on our mind, 
so intellectual elementary education demands : — 

1. Psychological direction of the action of nature 
in order to excite and collect the impressions which 
reason, i.e. the living intellectual power in the child, 
necessarily creates by the contemplation and by its 
existence in the midst, of the life of nature. 

2. Psychological utilisation of these impressions as 
the essential and unvarying means given by Nature 
herself, by which the whole power of the mind, or 
the faculty of reason, can be most easilv developed 
in us. 



NATURE, AIM, AND DIVISION 169 

Point of Starting of Intellectual Education — The 
point of starting of intellectual education is the im^ 
pression produced on us by the perception schwanen- 
of all the objects, inward or outward, which gesang, 
in coming in contact with our senses §^ 19-26. 
quicken and excite the instinct, essentially inherent 
in our minds, to develop itself. 

This perception, quickened by the instinct of the 
faculty of thought, leads to the consciousness of the 
impression which the objects perceived have made on 
us, and thereby to the sense recognition of the same. 
It consequently necessarily creates the sensation of 
the need of expressing these impressions, at first by 
signs, and afterward by speech. 

Now man can speak naturally of nothing which he 
has not recognised, nor otherwise than he has recog- 
nised it. What he has wrongly recognised, he will 
discuss wrongly. 

Study of Languages — That is why the study of 
the mother-tongue, like that of every other, is inti- 
mately connected with the knowledge acquired by 
perception. 

Here again the natural progress of education ought 
to be in accordance with that of nature, which de- 
mands that the impressions of our perceptions be 
transformed into knowledge. 

The child's desire for and capacity of speech 
develop only in proportion to the knowledge which he 
gradually acquires by perception. It is the neces- 
sarily slow progress of nature. But the pleasure he 
feels at hearing his mother speak gives him the 
desire of imitating her. Thus she accelerates the 
child's progress, and the aim of elementary education 



170 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

is precisely the search after the means of this acceler- 
ation, and the indication of them to mothers. 

Foreign Languages — The natural acquisition of 
any foreign language by no means progresses thus 
slowly, for the conditions given are quite different. 

In the first place, the child has already learned to 
use his organs of speech, and in every foreign tongue 
has only to practise a few new sounds. In the second 
place, he has already acquired by sense-perception 
millions of notions, which he can express in his 
mother-tongue with the greatest precision, so that the 
acquisition of a new language consists essentially in 
the learning how to transform sounds, the significa- 
tion of which in his mother-tongue he knows, into 
sounds which he does not yet know.^ 

The art of facilitating this transformation is then 
one of the most essential tasks of elementary edu- 
cation. 

The Formation of the Judgment — Another point of 
the greatest importance is the formation of the judg- 
ment. 

As the faculty of logically handling objects which 
have been clearly perceived by the senses, obviously 
finds its most natural incitement and quickening in 
the acquired power of counting and measuring, it is 

1 This confession, tardy but sincere, of the direct method in 
teaching modern languages deserves to be noted. It is to be ex- 
plained perhaps by the failure of Pestalozzi's language teaching. 
" The teaching of languages is absolutely bad " (Der Sprachunter- 
richt ist durchganzig schlect), writes Ksionzek, one of the teachers 
sent by the Prussian government to study the new pedagogy at 
Yverdon in 1810. (Letter dated February 3, 1810, Bruno Gebhardt, 
Die Einfiihruug der Pestalozzischen Methode in Preussen. Berlin, 
1896, p. 47.) 



NATURE, AIM, AND DIVISION 171 

clear that the simplified treatment of arithmetic and 
geometry will furnish the best means toward this 
important aim of education. 

Language, Number, Form — The means by which 
the action of reason manifests itself to us laee der 
in nature are language, number, and form. Elem., § 24. 
Applied to the power of producing and understand- 
ing the truths and relations which they contain ; 
they constitute the education of the reason ; applied 
to the power of producing and feeling their inherent 
beauty, harmony, and perfection, they constitute the 
aesthetic education. 

Artistic Education — We must also examine ele- 
mentary education from the point of view iMd., §§ 
of its influence on the artistic education of 121-133. 
man. This education, too, must, if it is to be truly 
elementary, start from the recognition of the unity of 
our nature. If art is to be human, i.e. if it is really 
to lead man to the consciousness of the dignity of his 
nature and to the accomplishments of an existence and 
a life corresponding to it, it must necessarily start from 
the elevation of mind and heart, as its essential foun- 
dation, and then express itself outwardly by the educa- 
tion of our senses and our physical powers. 

The Moral Element of Artistic Education — The 
moral element of artistic education is the moral 
nature of our race, which through the might of its 
purely divine essence, subordinates to itself the physi- 
cal education of our race, just as it subordinates to 
itself the intellectual education and permits neither 
the one nor the other to have a separate existence 
independent of it. 



172 PESTALOZZrS EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

The Intellectual Element of Artistic Education — In 
the same way the intellectual element of artistic edu- 
cation is the intellectual nature of man. 

Its especial external means is given to the child in 
the alphabet of sense-perception, in geometry, com- 
bined with the development of the faculty of thought, 
in the elementary exercises in language and number. 

With the help of these combined means the artistic 
faculty of the child develops intellectually. It makes 
figures out of combinations of lines, and does this in 
such a way that he exhausts the limits of the pos- 
sible in their combination. His sense of relation thus 
awakened forms a skeleton correctly, before he thinks 
of giving it flesh, colour, shape, and beauty. He be- 
comes a creator of the beautiful, not by the contem- 
plation and the copying of the single beautiful forms 
which he sees, but by the inner, general consciousness 
which he has of the pleasing, the decorous, the beau- 
tiful. And this consciousness is developed in him by 
exercises in the correct and the proportional, and ele- 
vates his mind imperceptibly to the sentiment of the 
simply sublime in externals, and thereby again has 
brought his mind into harmony with his inner self 
and made him capable of representing this harmony 
externally in art. 

The Physical Element of Artistic Education — The 
physical elements of art are primarily the senses 
themselves. Considered from this point of view, its 
means are mere exercises of the senses, especially of the 
eye and the ear. Secondly, the mechanical aptitudes 
of our hand and our mouth, in order to express the 
inwardly developed intuition of our art, also outwardly 
to the eye and to the ear. These aptitudes demand 



NATURE, AIM, AND DIVISION 173 

a double elementary gymnastic exercise of tlie hand 
and finger, the mouth and the throat. The first em- 
brace all works of art, drawing, or modelling ; the 
second confine themselves to the art of singing. 

First Esthetic Education — It is Nature herself 
who awakens our inner sense of order and beauty, — 
the fundamental basis of art. 

Nature is beautiful. The child likes to look at it, 
the mother likes to draw his attention to it. His 
whole moral, intellectual, and physical existence 
quickens his natural observation of everything that 
is beautiful. In this respect, one has only to connect 
oneself with the action and the appearances of Nature 
itself. Heaven and earth unfold themselves in all 
their glory before the eyes of the child ; and the more 
the child is quickened and trained by his moral and 
intellectual education, the greater is his inner recep- 
tivity for all that is beautiful. The child of the pious 
mother stands adoring before the beauty of creation, 
the germ of the development of the sense of beauty in 
him is quickened by the holy awe of the sublime, of 
the most high. The outward mechanical education 
to art is then proportionate to the intellectual. The 
mechanical foundation of all beauty, the outline of 
the skeleton of all that is beautiful, takes as its point 
of starting the consciousness of the relation of all 
forms to one another. It demands an educated fac- 
ulty of seizing correctly the proportions of every 
object, equally by the ear as by the eye, and express- 
ing the same correctly by hand or mouth. 

It is then by elementary exercise in arithmetic, 
geometry, and perspective, combined with the sublime 
moral means of quickening the artistic sense^ that the 



174 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

pupil of the method proceeds, now that he is prepared 
and rendered capable, to the exercise of the mechani- 
cal arts, which are essential to the outward presen- 
tation. The point of starting must necessarily be 
looked for in a natural development of the child's in- 
nate power and attained by the process of making of 
a habit of this power. 

What has been said of the artistic productions of 
eye and hand applies equally to what appertains to 
ear and throat. 

In most intimate connection with the intellectual 
exercises of artistic education, and necessarily depend- 
ent on the educated power of the eye and the hand, 
the mechanical means of artistic education are neces- 
sarily subject to the general laws of all elementary 
education. They all proceed from the physical exer- 
cises which teach the child to know the most impor- 
tant motions that his limbs are capable of making, and 
to practise the most suitable of these. But this gym- 
nastic exercise is only elementary so far as it is gen- 
eral, and ceases to be so as soon as it becomes the 
means of exercise in any special art. This point of 
view is important, because the special elements of art 
almost entirely coincide with the general elements. 
Therefore it is all the more necessary to keep both 
separately in view, and not to weaken the pure per- 
fect practice of the one by the one-sided limitation of 
the other. 

The absence of such elementary gymnastic exercise 
in art explains the disappearance of the artistic sense 
and the artistic faculty in the people and conse- 
quently of the inventive faculty. That is why the 
people stops at mere imitation. 



NATURE, AIM, AND DIVISION 175 

Technical and Artistic Education — Technical and 
artistic education, of which the training for one's fu- 
Schioanen- ture calling is only a part, has at the same 
yesang, § 28. time a physical and an intellectual basis, 
and calls both orders of faculty into play at the same 
time. 

Physical Education — Finally elementary physical 
education, in conformity with the inner unity of our 
nature, is nothing else than a psychological laee der 
development of power, or of the child's Elem., § 25. 
inherent physical faculties, which similarly again is 
/ attained by nothing else than their habitual use. 
y The point of starting of the development of these 
faculties is simply exercise. Exercise directed to the 
attaining of independent ease and security in the use 
of the limbs, and to the overcoming of physical obstar 
cles, produces strength; directed to attaining regular 
and harmonious expression, produces grace. 

General Human Character of Elementary Education 
— Elementary education, while following separately 
each one of these directions, nevertheless always takes 
possession, as the mother does, of the whole being of 
the child. While it is occupied in developing heart, 
mind, or body, it exercises and calls into action all the 
sentiments of the heart, all the faculties of the mind 
and the parts of the body. 

Impossibility of the Application of Elementary Edu- 
cation—!^ not elementary education a schwanen- 
dream ? where does it actually exist ? gesang, 

It exists everywhere and nowhere, every- ^^ 36-39. 
where in single proofs of the possibility of its realisa- 



176 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

tion, nowhere in its completion. The imperfection of 
our being renders impossible perfection in elementary 
education, for the knowledge and power of our race is 
patchwork in all its parts, and what is highest and 
best in our culture only develops in patchwork form. 
It is then only an ideal after which we must strive. 
No institute, however royally endowed, could apply 
practically the idea of elementary education as a per- 
fect method of education and instruction, applicable 
to all sorts and conditions of men. 

Why? 

Because human nature opposes the perfected general 
introduction of this high idea with irresistible strength. 
All our knowledge and all our capacity is patchwork 
and will remain so to the end of our days. 

Consequently, a method which shall satisfy the idea 
of elementary education in its perfection is inconceiv- 
able. 

Illuminate its principles ever so clearly, simplify 
its means to the utmost, no outward equality of the 
means of execution is conceivable; every individual 
will put these means into execution in a manner in 
accordance with the idiosyncrasies of his own individ- 
uality, i.e. otherwise than others would. 

But if we consider the aim of elementary education 
as the very aim of all human culture, then it is no 
longer a dream, for it is the aim of the humanity to 
which we belong, and therefore it is our duty to strive 
after it, therefore it cannot be eternally impossible of 
realisation and attainment, and may not be considered 
in this light. And if it is certain that the idea of ele- 
mentary education, in the forms of its application as 
method, will never attain perfection in its realisation, 



NATURE, AIM, AND DIVISION 177 

it is not less certain that the striving after this aim 
exists in human nature, and that to this striving 
we owe the degree of culture that humanity has 
attained. 

It is nowhere in its perfection, but it is to be seen 
everywhere in the patchwork of its single presenta- 
tions. 

Educating Injiuence of Life — Life educates. Life 
in the midst of great surroundings educates j^^g 
by force, life in domestic surroundings edu- der EUm., 
cates by love. ^ ^^** 

Life educates is the fundamental prin- schwanen- 
ciple of all education that is in conformity gesang, 
with Nature. ^ *^' 

HoiD does life educate ? To answer this lud., §§ 
question, we must examine the subject ^3, 44. 
from two points of view : — 

1. In what way does the influence of life tend to 
develop naturally the powers of human nature f 

In all circumstances, according to fixed, eternal 
laws, which are the same for all men, in all ranks of 
the social scale. 

2. How far does its influence tend to educate natu- 
rally the power of application of the developed faculties 
of the child ? 

Here again life acts on every individual which it 
educates in complete harmony with the different cir- 
cumstances in which the individual is placed, and also 
in harmony with the peculiar faculties which he pos- 
sesses. Its final influence in this respect is therefore 
inexpressibly variable. 

It follows, then, that the art of elementary education 



178 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

consists solely in presenting objects for sense-percep- 
tion in domestic life to the child, from the cradle, in 
attractive, powerful, and pleasant form, so that they 
may have an influence on him which is, in the truest 
sense of the word, educating. 



CHAPTER III 

THE ELEMENTARY METHOD 

There is only one method of education. — Definition and state- 
ment of the elementary method. — Nature of the elementary 
method. — Aim and originality of the method. — The method 
is positive from the point of view of the individual. — The 
method does not destroy individuality. — The method is 
positive from the point of view of the instruction. — The 
method ought to be universal. — Relations of the method 
to realism, formalism, philanthropinism, and humanism. — 
The method imitates Nature. — The method imitates the 
mother. 

There is only One Method of Education — There can- 
not be two good methods, there is only one, and this 
is based on the eternal laws of Nature. ^^^^ Gertrud 
But there is an infinite number of bad ihre Kinder 
methods, and the inferiority of each in- ^6^^^X,§22. 
creases in the measure that it departs from the laws 
of nature. 

I know that the only good method is not in my 
hands, nor in that of any man, and that we can only 
approximately reach it. It is why I strive after it 
with all my might, and have with regard to the judg- 
ment on my work only this one rule, " By their fruits 
ye shall know them." 

I do not deny that other methods may turn out 
good tailors, boot-makers, tradesmen, and soldiers, but 
I do deny that they can turn out a tailor or a trades- 

179 



180 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

man who will be, in the highest sense of the word, a 
man. Now the aim of all instruction is, and can be, 
nothing else than the humanly developed and quick- 
ened harmonious cultivation of the powers and dis- 
positions of human nature. 

Pestalozzi has embodied every good quality which 
he ever found in previous methods of education in 
his idea of elementary education. " The 
der Elem., simple and straightforward method of edu- 
§ ^^^' cation of our forefathers was much more 

allied to the principles of elementary education than 
the artificial refinement of the education of our time 
of weakness and corruption." 

He regrets the abuse of the word metliod, which has 
been used much too soon to designate the isolated pro- 
lUd., cesses and forms of the intellectual element- 

§ 286. ary education. The only thing which may, 

nay must be truly so called, is the whole extent of the 
education according to Nature, and by no means the 
limited view of single objects and processes of instruc- 
tion. 

Definition and Statement of the Elemental^ Method 
— This method addresses itself essentially to human 
Ibid., nature as a unity, as a whole, in the whole 

§§ 92-111. range of its faculties and dispositions. It 
considers morality and spirituality not merely as sis- 
terly helpers of intellectual education, but acknowl- 
edges them to be the absolute and necessary foundation 
of it. It elevates our nature by noble sentiments 
before conducting it to the insight and knowledge 
of things, and extends the tender ties which unite the 
child and his parents, which express themselves in 



THE ELEMENTARY METHOD 181 

gratitude, love, and confidence, during the childhood 
of its pupil, from the father and mother on earth 
to his Father in heaven; and believes the unity of 
human education, and the possibility of the harmo- 
nious union of the means of its moral, intellectual, 
and physical development only, to be attainable by the 
transference of his childlike feelings toward the 
mother to the faith in and adoration of God. 

From the first word it teaches, in every faculty it 
calls into play, in every truth it communicates, it 
only gives facts and not ideas, and it founds every 
idea which the child forms, on the observation of 
facts. 

One is wrong, then, to reproach the intellectual ele- 
mentary education with tearing the pupil too early out 
of the dim religious light in which he sees truth as it 
were in a glass darkly, and out of his pious antici- 
patory faith. On the contrary, it carefully preserves 
this dim religious light, and raises the child just as 
Nature herself does, through a slowly dissolving twi- 
light to the daylight of truth. 

The method never goes against Nature, but is 
always in harmony with her. 

A second reproach equally unjust, which has been 
levelled against the method, is that it does not connect 
its means of education closely enough with the truth 
of the circumstances of the individual and his domes- 
tic life, and of the actual existence of men. It is true 
that the forms of the intellectual education, as sepa- 
rate elementary means, seem in this separatedness one- 
sided and separated from connection of the whole 
existence of the child; but they are only so far as 
they are considered singly. They are not so in the 



182 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

lesson, they are not so in the relation of the teacher to 
the child. 

Of a truth, those who levelled this reproach at the 
method forgot that the idea of elementary education 
is a general idea, which must certainly in its presenta- 
tion and application be divided into moral, intellectual, 
physical education, etc. ; but these three divisions in 
human life never occur singly : on the contrary, they 
constantly interpenetrate in the unity of the human 
nature. 

The child educated by the method is easily distin- 
guished from other children. He looks at a thing long, 
steadily, penetratingly, piercingly, before he decides. 
He strives to attain the power of judging many things 
far less than to attain the power of judging correctly, 
and develops his power far more by well-ordered activ- 
ity, by industry and work, than by idle grasping after 
an extension of his knowledge. By following this 
course, his judgment on all things ripens of itself, 
before he expresses it, even to himself. This judg- 
ment is therefore, too, as little voluntary in him as the 
essence of the method itself is voluntary in him ; but 
it is an expression of nature, of the ripened truth and 
necessity in him. It is absolute, because it does not 
go farther than sense-perception itself. The calm, free, 
and simple natural impression of the objects is not 
then lessened by the method, but on the contrary is 
made more many-sided and more distinct. This in- 
vading, all-embracing thoroughness of the method 
leads the pupil necessarily, by reason of its essence, to 
satisfy the demands of his inner self in his condition, 
and to that inward security and tranquillity which 
preserves him from all exaggeration ; also it leads 



THE ELEMENTARY METHOD 183 

him to that reliability and accuracy with which the 
satisfied man always knows how to appreciate his con- 
dition and its advantages at their true value, and to 
make the most of them. 

The elementary method, then, is diametrically op- 
posed to the spirit of the education of the age, which 
has expressed itself in nothing more distinctly than 
in the general desire of change and drawing up of 
projects, and, in what is so essential and so inseparable 
from this spirit, the removing farther away from all 
purity of the inner human nature. 

In every case, the idea of elementary education is 
independent of its application, and therefore also of 
every attempt at execution. And again, the intellec- 
tual guidance of the child is in no case elementarily 
right if it is not in harmony with the whole course of 
the child's inner and outer life. The child must live 
in his surroundings, believing, loving, and acting, and 
must acquire his physical and intellectual strength by 
active love if it is to be educated according to the 
elementary method. The greater, the truer, the more 
active the love that pervades the child's surroundings 
and his own heart, the more certain is the attainment 
of the human development of the child's physical and 
intellectual strength. 

Faith and love are the basis of elementary educa- 
tion. The child of the method is no child of dreams, 
of faintness, of weakness ; his truth is certainly small 
in extent, but is in its essence strong and of good 
foundation ; it is born of his innocence and is a child 
of his strength. It is limited, but it loves its limits 
and is happy in them. I would say of it with the 
poet, 



184 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

Klein und arm ist meine Hute, 
Dock ein Sitz der FrohlichkeitA 

The child of the method flees from and fears every 
unprepared and unfounded extension of his power. 
He goes in his education to the truth daily a sure 
gait, with measured and unwearying tread. He fears 
the opinions of the many-headed herd. Anything 
which does not simply and easily connect itself with 
what he already knows to be true, certain, and dear, 
does not remain in his mind; it goes past him like 
a vision, which has no place in his whole existence. 
His life in the truth is full of power, and if ever in 
this life its truth seems to him interwoven with an 
empty meaning, the vanity and emptiness of this 
meaning has by no means the same effect on him as 
it has on children whose education is, as a whole, vain 
and empty. Most certainly he will never become 
like the mere theorists who, without truth them- 
selves, greedily snap, as hungry swallows snap at 
little midges in the air, at the baseless opinions of 
others ! No ! the children of the method will never 
become such mere theorists. Their beliefs all spring 
from a moral foundation and live in minds exercised 
in truth; they grow up in the life of pious, holy 
sentiments, and as they find, by the development of 
true, living, spiritual strength, an inner counterpoise 
to their destruction, so the actual sting of folly 
perishes in them. These theories can only appear 
to them in the emptiness of their actual being, and 
this becomes harmless by the preponderance of truth, 
love, and strength, with which it seems interwoven in 

1 My cottage is small and poor, 
But a happy home. 



THE ELEMENTARY METHOD 185 

them. It recoils in every case from the delicacy of 
their pure, innocent feelings, and from the rock of 
immovable, impenetrable truth inherent in them. 

This union of delicacy and strength is peculiar to 
the method in all its parts. In the whole extent of 
elementary education every step of its exercises is 
like all steps of holy nature, infinitely delicate and 
light, but at the same time, nevertheless, immovably 
firm, and sure of its results by reason of the full 
consciousness of its strength, to which the delicacy 
which sanctifies it is never wanting. 

If we go to the pure source of elementary education, 
if we observe what the mother does, we find that her 
very hand, by the help of which the child learns to 
walk, although it is soft and acts without any press- 
ure, is nevertheless a firm hand. But what would 
her soft gentleness become without her inner power, 
without her consciousness of her power, and without 
the certainty of her results, which is founded on this 
consciousness ? 

Here again we see that the spirit of the method 
always aims in its first weak steps, no less than in 
its last results, at maturity, at completion, at perfec- 
tion. All the means of the method are calculated for 
this purpose ; their result must therefore be the high, 
pure, perfect strength of human nature. 

For here, too, the elementary method proves itself in 
harmony with Christianity, the chief precept of which 
is expressed in these words, " Be ye therefore perfect, 
even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." 

Nature of the Elementary Method — As its name 
indicates, it ought to be above all elementary, and as 



186 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

such have an organic and not a historic development. 
Pestalozzi means by that, that it ought not to follow 
j^gg the path in all its byways, windings, and 

der Elem., wanderings which humanity, if we con- 
§§ 8-21. sider it only on its empirical course, has 

had to follow in order to arrive at truth and indepen- 
dence. 

Aim and Originality of the Method — The element- 
ary method aims at the discovery and retention of the 
essential elements, i.e. the unchangeable initial and 
progressive points of all instruction and all education. 
It aims at the discovery, and not the invention of the 
elements. It is not a question of new, hitherto non- 
existent, educational material, but of a right appreci- 
ation, apprehension, and elaboration of that which 
already existed at the creation of man. It aims 
at the retention, not at the determination, of the 
elements. 

What pure instinct has done unconsciously, but 
with certain success, the educator is to do with in- 
sight and intuitive knowledge ; what nature has pro- 
duced of necessity, education is to take over with 
reason, and be as comprehensive in its treatment and 
as sure of success. 

The elements of such a method are the points of 
starting of knowledge, capacity, and will. As the 
seed which is put into the ground produces stalk, 
blossom, and fruit, so they contain in germ every- 
thing human in the child. 

His recognition of the truth, the sentiment of the 
beautiful and the power of good, and the method must 
perfectly develop these in the child. The method is 
then to take possession at the same time of the will of 



THE ELEMENTARY METHOD 187 

the child, his instinct toward the true, his pleasure 
in the beautiful, and his zeal for the good so com- 
pletely and actively that his recognition of the first, 
his sense of the second, and his power for the third 
may harmoniously develop, as far as the measure and 
limits of his nature may be capable of it. 

The method then should go back not only to the 
primordial in human nature, but also to the primordial 
in every single subject of instruction; in all know- 
ledge, capacity, and will, which the child is to acquire 
through education and instruction. 

Human nature, in the whole extent of its faculties, 
powers, necessities, and conditions, is not only the 
initial point and the centre, but also the end point, the 
exclusive object of its task. 

The elementary method is distinguished from other 
methods in that it is diametrically opposed to the 
general opinion that the child is not yet human, that 
his animal nature is first transformed by education to 
that of a human being. 

Its aim is therefore absolutely this, to seize, quicken, 
and strengthen the human, spiritual, and moral quali- 
ties which exist in the child from the beginning. In 
other words, it considers and treats the child from the 
very first moment as possessing a human, spiritual, 
and moral nature. He is indeed, and of a truth, the 
image of God. The child is as little in Pestalozzi's 
eyes a tabula rasa, on which external impressions are 
engraved, or an empty vase intended to be filled. 
He is a real, living, spontaneous force, which, from 
the first moment of his existence, acts organically on 
its own development ; which conceives, which receives, 
which shapes and moulds as it produces. Certainly 



188 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

Nature, the mother's devotion, the domestic surround- 
ings, incite and impel, direct and guide, by their im- 
pressions the activity of this power ; but they have no 
power over the nature of the activity. Nature gives 
it food and quickening influences by means of sense- 
perceptions and the sensations called forth by those 
impressions; but while the nature of the child re- 
ceives them, it contains spontaneous in itself the 
foundation of its life and the laws of its activity. 
The sense-perceptions and the sensations produced by 
outer impressions belong to the inner strength of the 
child. Created by it, they are in their origin human, 
spiritual, and moral. Separated from the external 
objects in which man first perceived them, and thereby 
perceives himself and his soul, perceived and con- 
ceived, singly and independently, they become and 
they are the simple and unvarying elements of all 
purely human, purely spiritual, and purely moral cul- 
ture of childhood and humanity. 

The Method is Positive from the Point of View of the 
Individual — Through this conception of human nature 
Pestalozzi's method becomes then above all essentially 
positive, and that is a further peculiar characteristic 
of it. The humanity which it presupposes in the 
child is a bud ready to open, a quickened entity, a 
complex of striving or energetic dispositions and re- 
ceptive faculties, which in indivisible unity radiate 
in all directions of his existence and imbibe life from 
all sides — qualities which reveal themselves as im- 
pulses and powers, capacities which reveal themselves 
as senses, all of which receive an individual existence 
by the fact that their activity and receptivity is lim- 
ited and circumscribed in accordance with inner laws. 



THE ELEMENTARY METHOD 189 

The method is to put into human activity the child's 
human instincts and call into action his human senses. 
But this calling into action is not restricting from 
without, but expanding from within. It does not aim 
at negative hindrance of what is bad, but at positive 
quickening of what is good. It acts against weakness 
by increasing the actually existing power against error, 
by the development of the inherent germ of truth; 
against sensuousness by the nourishing and strength- 
ening of the mind. Perfectly conscious and always 
mindful of its aim, which is nothing else than to serve 
something higher than itself, viz., the divine nature in 
the child, and to help this divine nature to full devel- 
opment, not to subdue it, the method, personified in 
the educator, takes the form of a servant, and gives 
itself up, with joyful obedience, as to the will of God 
Himself, not to the child's whims nor to the child 
as individual, but to the life and law in him. 

The true teacher of the method, feeling in all hu- 
mility his own weakness and limitations, does not 
dare to violently interfere with the course of the pupil, 
to arbitrarily determine the direction he is to take, to 
force on him his own ideas, his own aims, and his 
own opinions. He would consider it a crime, treason 
against humanity. 

With holy awe the teacher nourishes and nurses 
what is already existent, as if it were a plant which 
the Heavenly Father has planted. As he, in this 
spirit, in the true Christian spirit, full of unassuming 
modesty and self-devotion, absolutely respects human 
nature and works as a mere tool in the kingdom of 
God, so he stands there in priestly dignity as inter- 
mediary between the child and life. He is, in the 



190 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

Socratic sense, the midwife of the child's human and 
spiritual independence, his individuality, i.e. the god- 
like idea in him, which is to become visible and active. 

The MetJiod does not destroy Individuality — The 
method, since it is positive, takes as its point of start- 
ing the individual child which it has before it. There 
is nowhere anything positive in education or in instruc- 
tion, except just the child as individual and the indi- 
vidual power inherent in him. Everywhere, indeed, 
where method exists it is necessarily individualised 
and individualising. 

It is therefore not possible to misconceive the nature 
of things and of man more completely than they do 
who maintain that a general system of education 
tends to destroy individuality. Its generality con- 
sists just simply in this, that it takes the individuality 
of each single child and cultivates it. The method 
does not desire to develop anything that does not 
already exist as capacity in the child, and again 
develops this capacity simply out of itself and from 
its own centre. The abundance and variety of these 
faculties and capacities, of this course and of these 
laws, may certainly confuse the weak and superficial 
observer to such an extent that, incapable of finding 
and holding fast their clue, he loses his way in the 
ocean of empiricism and arbitrary experiment. But 
Nature nevertheless claims her right, and the method 
will offer its faithful student the means of looking 
into the organism of her processes of education in 
order that he may at least have a glimmer of what he 
cannot clearly discern and let himself be guided by it. 
Just to recognise the capability, the individuality, in 
the child, to see his independence as individual, to 



THE ELEMENTARY METHOD 191 

note how humanity shows itself in an infinite variety 
of forms, and is characteristic in countless ways in 
every single existence, and how yet again the same 
humanity appears in all, how each is a mirror of the 
whole, and how this whole reveals itself as the one, 
unvarying and eternal, more or less visible, in wider 
or narrower extent, with greater or less splendour : to 
see this is the rapture of the follower of the method, 
i.e. of the educator who recognises his task and his 
relation to mankind. It is his worth, his strength, 
his reward, the inexhaustible fountain of his love, 
and the inspiriting stimulus of his activity. How- 
ever low and humble the single individual may be, 
however limited and imperfect his capacity, the 
educator considers him as an image of humanity ; he 
reverently sees in him a revelation of the divine idea. 
With this aspect of man, the aspect of the whole of 
Nature is for him ennobled. He himself gains in 
nobility through the nobility of his profession, and in 
educating others he educates no one more than him- 
self. 

The degrading view of education, that the educator 
sacrifices himself to the child and thus .loses as it were 
his own existence, so that another may be gained, this 
view, I say, disappears, for in gaining the pupil the 
educator gains himself. 

Tlie Method is Positive from the Point of View of the 
Instruction — Just as the method is positive in re- 
spect of the child, i.e. takes as its point of starting 
the individual in him, it is also positive in respect of 
the instruction or of the knowledge imparted. It 
takes as point of starting the independent in every 
subject it teaches. Its every aim, without exception, 



192 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

is to bring the pupil not to reflection on what things 
are not, but to apperception, to immediate conscious- 
ness of what they really are. It starts from the prin- 
ciple that all human knowledge and all human art 
have real points of starting, in' which every single 
science and every single art is contained as it were in 
germ. With the discovery of these originally indi- 
vidualised germs of knowledge and of art, true in- 
struction and educational training in its widest sense 
are inseparably connected. 

The method desires to help every one and to bring 
every one to the recognition of truth, i.e. as soon as he 
is capable of grasping it, and to give every one just 
that culture which he needs. 

The MetJiod ought to he Universal — From this point 
of view, then, it ought to be a universal method, and it 
must be so. Not according to the wrong idea that 
men, that the faculties, the characters, the opinions, 
and the conduct of the pupils are to be equalised, and 
the differences of rank and position to be obliterated. 
On the contrary, the method desires that every pupil 
should grow out of himself into his position and into 
his surroundings. Its universality lies in the prin- 
ciples stated above, that every human faculty in the 
child is based upon the same organic impulse, that all 
art, all knowledge, just because it is individual, has 
the same unvarying, eternally fixed elements for all 
and can never change its nature. For example, 
bodily development is eternally impossible without 
exercise and motion of the body. Mathematical talent 
can only develop in exercise on number and form, 
unity and plurality, dimension and figure, in their 
relations and combinations, and the gradual progress 



THE ELEMENTARY METHOD 193 

of this exercise is in all ages determined by the intel- 
lectual organism of the human being, which itself 
again acts according to a determined order. ^ 

To discover the object corresponding to every single 
sense of the human nature, the action which shall put 
into activity every single faculty of the child, and to 
present it in the form which the increasing capacity 
of those senses, the widening extension of these powers 
demand, that is the general principle, the realisation 
of which is the starting-point of the method. 

Relations of the Method to Healism, Formalism, 
Fhilanthropinism, and Humanism — If, and so far as 
the method does that, it appears as actual intermedi- 
ary between all the opposed principles of education, 
realism, formalism, philanthropinism, and humanism, 
it ought to satisfy at the same time the demands of 
human education, professional education, individual, 
civic, domestic, and public education. While immedi- 
ately connecting instruction and teaching with the in- 
variable and eternal in the surroundings of human 
nature and with its being, it not only succeeds in com- 
pletely obliterating the opposition which has hitherto 
existed between elementary and applied instruction, 
but also that between formal and real education. It 
develops the faculty and the organ of knowledge by 
the communication of true knowledge, and, conversely, 
it creates true knowledge by the development of the 
organ of knowledge. 

Tlie Method imitates Nature — It imitates in the in- 
tellectual domain the sublime proceeding of Nature in 
the corporeal world. As Nature in every plant, at 
every stage of its growth, harmoniously develops mate- 

1 Other examples as regards language, the senses, etc., follow. 



194 PESTALOZZrS EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

rial and form in their mutual commingling, and as 
every plant appears in the whole period of its growth, 
on the one hand complete in every point of its whole 
being, i.e. as a whole in harmonious correlation with 
itself, in no part and on no side of its growth, either 
too advanced or too retarded, on the other hand, in- 
complete, i.e. in perpetual growth ; so the elementary 
method strives to have in the child, at every point of 
its education, material and form in mutual harmoni- 
ous permeation, and the child of the method appears 
during the whole period of its education, on the one 
hand, complete in every point of this education, i.e. a 
whole, in harmonious correlation with himself, in no 
part and on no side of his growth, either too advanced 
or too retarded, on the other hand nevertheless incom- 
plete, not brought to the aim of his maturity, but 
always still in perpetual growth. 

Thus it makes its pupil capable of creating out of 
himself knowledge of life and art as an organic whole. 
If it is from the first point of view scientific, it is also 
from this point of view essentially, in the highest 
sense of the word, artistic. It is in its very essence 
Nature understood by man. 

As richly endowed as Nature, it has receptivity, 
flexibility, and breadth of mind sufficient to embrace 
every plant that springs from the ground of human- 
ity. A limited mind can limit it, and a fool can mis- 
use it as the vessel o'f his own folly, but it remains, 
nevertheless, what it is, rightly understood in its true 
extent, not the work of single individuals, but the 
task of history, the business of human culture as a 
whole, the work of Nature herself in the course of 
the development of the human race. It will expand 



THE ELEMENTARY METHOD 196 

and develop, as man gradually approaches the destiny- 
appointed him by God, and as he step by step dis- 
covers the means which God has offered him in Him- 
self and in Nature for its attainment. 

Tlie Method imitates the Mother. — Nowhere does the 
existence and coherence of the whole of the method 
find so pure and so awe-inspiring a form as it does in 
the conduct of the mother, whether perfectly educated 
or perfectly simple and humanly natural, toward her 
infant. This conduct is purely primitive, i.e. ele- 
mental. It is purely positive. It takes as its point 
of starting, without byways, without hesitation or 
doubt, the immediate perception of the child's needs, 
and proceeds to the immediate satisfaction of those 
needs. It is purely organic. The quickened facul- 
ties of the child sprout out in all directions as germs 
of future progress. It embraces at the same time the 
knowledge, the capacity, and the will of the child, 
and acts, nevertheless, in the most individual and posi- 
tive fashion on each one of these. It is universal, 
because the needs of all children are essentially the 
same. 

The child is, as individual, absolutely independent 
of the mother. The mother thinks not of herself, but 
of the child. His life, as it is, is her joy, and the 
care of this life her holiest task. As child, however, 
the individual in him is in this liberty at the same 
time obedient and subjected to the educated reason 
of the mother. 

Such is the point of starting of the elementary 
method, which essentially consists in connecting in 
unbroken continuity all means of education to the 
essence of this purely maternal conduct toward the 



196 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

child. Every other method is wrong, and can only 
serve as makeshift. 

Just as every predominance of certain external 
faculties, of whatever kind these may be, destroys 
in us the inner unity, so through every predomi- 
nance of one faculty, at the expense of another, we 
destroy in ourselves what is holiest in our nature. 



CHAPTER IV 

SENSE-PERCEPTION AS THE PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUN- 
DATION OF INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION 

Definition of sense-perception. — Origins of knowledge : chance, 
surroundings, personal will, calling and work, analogy 
and deduction. — Connection between the objects of sense- 
perception and social position. — Connection of the faculty 
of sense-perception with the faculty of thought. — Sense-per- 
ception is the foundation of judgment. — Transformation of 
sense-perception into conceptions and judgments. — Examples 
of perceptions. — Disadvantage of truths not recognised by 
perception. — General processes of sense-perception : pre- 
cepts to observe. — Acquisition of notions by sense-percep- 
tion. — Part which the senses play in perception. — Psycho- 
logical foundation of intellectual education. — Course of 
instruction. — Psychological course of teaching. — Man is 
the centre of all sense-perception. 

Definition of Sense-perception — Sense-perception con- 
sidered by itself is nothing else than the 
mere bein.^ there of external obiects before '^^^Gertrud 
the senses and the mere stirring of the lehrt, X, § i. 
consciousness of their impression. 

Thus the mere bringing of sounds to the ear and 
the mere stirring of the consciousness of the impres- 
sion made on the sense of hearing is as ibid., 
much sense-perception for the child as the § ^• 
mere putting of things before his eyes and the mere 
stirring of his consciousness of the impression they 
make on his sense of sight. 

197 



198 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

This is the beginning of all instruction given by 
Nature. It is the instruction received by the babe 
and given by the mother. 

Human art has done nothing in order to keep up 
with Nature in this respect. 

Sense-perception is the supreme principle of instruc- 
tion, the absolute foundation of all knowledge. It is 
^. ^ , because the education of the time did not 

rVZ6 (jrBVtVltU/ 

Hire Kinder recognise this truth that it took a wrong 
lehrt, IX, road. It killed the very spirit of truth 
' * and extinguished in the human race the 

faculty of independence which is based on truth. 

Origins of Knowledge — The origins of our know- 
ledge are : — 

1. Chance, or rather the impression of everything 
which chance brings into contact with our five senses. 
Ibid., VII, But this kind of sense-perception is irregu- 
§ ^1- lar, confused, and proceeds but slowly and 
only within certain limits. 

2. Surroundings, i.e. everything which is presented 
to our senses by the intervention of the art and guid- 
ance of parents and teachers. This kind of sense-per- 
ception is naturally proportionate to the degree of 
insight and activity of the parents and teachers. 

3. Personal will, i.e. the will of the subject to ac- 
quire knowledge and to arrive of himself at percep- 
tions. The perceptions thus acquired give insight 
intrinsic value, and bring us nearer spontaneous action 
on our education. 

4. Calling and work in general, i.e. the exertion 
and work of our calling, and generally of all activity 
which has not mere sense-perception as its object. 



SENSE-PERCEPTION 199 

This kind of cognition connects our perceptions with 
situations and circumstances, brings the results of the 
same into harmony with our efforts toward duty and 
virtue, and has essentially, both by the compulsory 
character of its course and by the entire absence of 
our will in the attainment of the results, the most 
important influence on the justice, the uninterrupted 
continuity and the harmony of our insight, until we 
have attained the realisation of its aim, viz., clearness 
of conception. 

5. Analogy and Deduction — Finally, the acquisition 
of knowledge by perception proceeds by analogy, in 
that it teaches us the nature, too, of such things as have 
never been presented to our direct sense-perception, 
but the similarity of which we deduce from other 
objects which have really been directly presented to 
our senses. This method of perception makes our 
progress in knowledge, which as result of actual di- 
rect sense-perception is only the work of our senses, 
the work of our mind and all our faculties, and we 
live thereby in as many kinds of perceptions as we 
have mental faculties ; but the word has with regard 
to these last perceptions a more comprehensive mean- 
ing than it has in ordinary speech, and embraces also 
the whole series of sentiments which are inseparable 
from the nature of our minds. 

Connection between the Objectr of Sense-perception 
and /Social Position — The quantity and 
quality of the objects of sense-perception, g^g^^g §52. 
as well as the sum of the means of util- 
ising them for the cultivation of the mind, vary 
directly as the social conditions of the individuals 



200 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

concerned. The quantity of these objects will natu- 
rally be more restricted for the man who cultivates 
the land than for the man who follows some profes- 
sion or calling in the town, and will again be more 
restricted among these than among those destined 
for a scientific or literary career. 

Connection of the Faculty of Sense-perception with 
the Faculty of TJiought — The faculty of sense-percep- 
Schwanen- tion, if it be not unnaturally led astray, 
gesang, § 69. leads man of itself, under all circumstances, 
to clear presentations on the objects of his surround- 
ings, i.e. to so many single foundations of the natural 
quickening of his faculty of thought. 

But so far as these clear presentations are only 
founded on sense-perception, and are only quickened 
by it, they can by no means satisfy human nature. 
For human nature wants to raise the presentations 
which have become clear to the senses to the rank of 
distinct conceptions ; it wants by its own independent 
power to group the objects of its perception, to sepa- 
rate them, and to compare them one with the other ; 
it wants to utilise them as a means of preparation for 
the development of its faculty of judgment ; it wants 
to handle them logically. And its desire to do this 
is involuntary, irresistible. The power of the faculty 
of thought and judgment, latent in man, impels it 
inevitably to this desire. 

Sense-perception is the Foundation of Judgment — If 
„,. ^ we admit that sense-perception is the 

TVl6 (jrCVtWu, 

ihre Kinder foundation of all knowledge, it follows in- 
lehrt, VII, evitably that accuracy of sense-perception 
■ ' is the real foundation of accurate judgment. 



SENSE-PERCEPTION 201 

No judgment may be considered ripe if it is not 
obviously a result of a sense-perception, ijjid., iv, 
perfect in all its parts, of tlie object on § !*• 
wbicli a judgment is to be pronounced. 

Transformation of Sense-perceptions into Conceptions 
and Judgments — The art of facilitating the transition 
from the clear consciousness of single Schivanen- 
objects of sense-perception to accurate gesang,^ 69. 
thought and judgment on them, by naturally organ- 
ised means of instruction, which have been arranged 
in psychological gradation, is in anything but a high 
degree of perfection and thoroughness in our hands. 
Since the creation of the world man has worked at 
the means of facilitating the transition from the ele- 
ments of the culture of the faculty of sense-perception 
to the elements of the culture of the faculty of thought 
in the human race by art, and at raising the common 
sense which is gained by the simple perception of the 
objects of Nature to the rank of the logically assured 
faculty of thought and judgment. 

But here again the path of Nature has been aban- 
doned. Instead of carefully striving to group, to 
separate, and to compare correctly the objects per- 
ceived by the senses, people want more and more to 
teach children to think, on the one hand by arbitrary 
and unnatural extension of the number of subjects for 
reflection, regarded from a superficial and one-sided 
point of view, on the other by the learning of logic, i.e. 
by the — I do not know if I ought to say clear or 
subtle — explanation of the external laws which are the 
basis of the faculty of thought. But just as the first 
proceeding, instead of truly furthering the develop- 



202 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

ment of the faculty of thought, on the contrary lays 
the greatest obstacles in its path; so on the other 
hand the external laws, which form the basis of the 
natural development of the human faculty of thought, 
can certainly not be understood in their truth and 
profundity by pupils who are not yet sufficiently pre- 
pared, by the actual grouping, separating, and compar- 
ing with one another of the objects they perceive, 
for the progressive use of the faculty of thought ; they 
cannot, I say, be so understood that they themselves 
be regarded as the truly generally useful means of 
educating and strengthening this faculty. Under 
these conditions, logic remains for them a closed 
book. 

Examples of Perceptions — Every child which has 
learned to observe {anschauen) with an elementary ex- 
Schwanen- actness the different conditions of water in 
gesang, §§ repose or in motion, and its transmutations 

' ■ into dew, rain, vapour, steam, hoar-frost, 

hail, etc., then its action and its influence, on all its 
conditions, on other objects of nature, and to express 
himself thereupon with precision, has in himself the 
elements of the technical aspect of physical geography 
on all these objects. In the same way, every child 
which has learned to observe in an elementary manner 
the solution of salt or sugar in the kitchen, their 
reduction from their liquid to their solid condition, 
their crystallisation, or the fermentation of wine in 
the cellar, its turning sour and its transmutation into 
vinegar, or the transformation of alabaster into plas- 
ter, or marble into lime, sand into glass, etc., and to 
express itself with precision on all these subjects, 
likewise carries in himself the elements of perceptions 



SENSE-PERCEPTION 203 

in the sciences, to the closer investigation of which 
these objects incite ; just as a child which has learned 
to observe with an elementary exactness only a few 
farm-houses in all their parts, and to express himself 
thereupon with precision, carries in himself the ele- 
ments of the knowledge of architecture in its essential 
parts. 

It is incalculable how far the development of the 
faculty of perception, rightly treated from the cradle, 
may lead in cognition of scientific subjects, when it is 
founded on psychologically ordered exercises in sense- 
perception, and the way to intellectual abstract know- 
ledge has naturally and thoroughly been paved. When 
the faculty is vigorous, the artificial assistance which 
must be rendered is easy ; and when that is easy, 
good progress is made as a matter of course. A child 
which has been rightly directed to perception of num- 
ber and form has already half crossed the bridge that 
leads to exercises in deduction in arithmetic and ge- 
ometry before the actual exercises in deduction can 
naturally even have been begun with him. These 
last exercises, if they are to be given naturally, pre- 
suppose a faculty of perception which has been 
brought to a high degree of maturity. 

Disadvantage of Truths not recognised by Perception 
— Every merely superficially recognised truth, which is 
not based in its essential parts on percep- ^^ .^ ^^^ 
tion, and has not been submitted to the 
scrutiny of thought, remains in human nature in the 
air, so to speak. It has no means of connecting itself 
naturally with other truths, with which it is really in 
relation, and innumerable superficially recognised 
truths have less educative action on the development 



204 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

of the faculty of thought than a single one, sufficiently- 
based on perception, and recognised in all its extent 
by the faculty of thought. 

Superficially recognised truths cannot by any means 
conduce to the harmony of our faculties, which is the 
supreme aim, both of the course of nature in the de- 
velopment of the same, and of the whole complex of 
all artificial means of education. 

General Processes of Sense-perception: Precepts to 
observe — First learn how to arrange your perceptions 
WieGertrud and attain a complete mastery over the 
/^r^/^v^^^ simple elements before you proceed to 
§ 14. ' ' something more complicated. Try to form 
in every art a succession of steps, in which each new 
idea is only a slight, an almost imperceptible addition 
to knowledge already deeply imprinted on and made 
indelible in the memory. 

Secondly, bring in your mind all essentially related 
objects into exactly that connection with one another 
in which they really are in nature. Subordinate in 
your mind all non-essentials to essentials, and subor- 
dinate especially the impression made by the artificial 
aspect, to that made by nature and its real truth, and 
give nothing a greater importance in your mind than 
it has in nature relatively to the human race. 

Strengthen and give clearness to the impressions of 
important things by artificially bringing them nearer 
to you, and letting them act on various senses. Bear 
in mind to this end above all the law of physics, which 
lays down that the magnitude of the action of objects 
on our senses varies directly as the distance of those 
objects from our senses. Never forget that the 



SENSE-PERCEPTION 205 

physical proximity or remoteness has invariably an 
infinitely great influence on the positive element of 
your opinions, and on your circumstances, your duties, 
and your very virtue. 

Consider all actions of physical nature as absolutely 
necessary, and recognise in this necessity the result of 
the power with which it unites the seemingly hetero- 
geneous elements of its material in order to effect the 
complete attainment of its aim, and see to it that you 
also raise to a physical necessity the art with which 
you act on the instruction of your fellow-creatures, 
and also the results at which it aims, so that in all you 
do, even the apparently most heterogeneous means may 
serve in the attainment of the same chief aim. 

But in consequence of the rich variety and diversity 
of attraction and the wide scope, the results of physical 
necessity generally assume the stamp of freedom and 
independence. Look to it, then, that you too, while 
striving to raise the results of art and of instruction 
to the level of a physical necessity, nevertheless give 
them, by means of rich variety and diversity of attrac- 
tion and latitude of scope, the stamp of freedom and 
independence. 

Acquisition of Notions hy Sense-perception — All the 
objects which impinge on my senses are for me only 
so far means of attaining correct notions, ^^^^ y %2 
as their outward appearance causes their 
unvarying immutable essence rather than their varying, 
changing condition to impinge on my senses — they 
are on the contrary for me so far sources of error or 
illusion, if their appearance cause their accidental con- 
dition especially to impinge on my senses. 

To every perceptive notion which has been imprinted 



206 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

and made indelible by the completeness of its impres- 
sion on the human mind, a whole succession of more or 
less related subordinate ideas associate themselves with 
great ease, practically without our volition. 

By the grouping of objects which have the same 
essential qualities, your insight into the inner truth 
of the same is made essentially and generally wider, 
acuter, and surer ; the one-sided preponderating im- 
pression of the nature of single objects is weakened to 
the gain of the impression which its essence ought to 
make on you. The entangling of your mind by the 
isolated force of single impressions is hindered, and 
you are preserved from the danger of thoughtlessly 
confounding the external appearances of objects with 
their essence, from an exaggerated preference for any 
one thing, which a better insight would have caused 
you to put into a subordinate position and from the 
fantastic filling of your head with such subordinate 
things. 

Thus the more man has acquired wide and general 
insight into things and into their essence, the less he 
will be misled by limited and exclusive insight, and 
conversely. 

Even the most complicated perception is composed 
of simple elements. If you have come to definite 
clearness on these, the most complicated will be 
simple to you. 

Part which the Senses play in Perception — The 
more we use our senses in recognising the essence or 
the varying aspects of an object, the more accurate will 
be our knowledge of this object. 

Psychological Foundation of Intellectual Education. 
Course of Instruction — Pestalozzi was soon convinced 



SENSE-PERCEPTION 207 

by experience that elementary instruction did not 

merely consist of reading, writing, and arithmetic, and 

that these subiects, far from being the ele- _,^, ^ ^ ^ 

•* ; ® Wie Gertrud 

ments of instruction, ought, on the con- ikre Kinder 

trary, to be subordinated to much wider l^hrt, VI, §§ 

points of view. He gradually discovered 

that a child must be taught to speak before he is 

taught to read, to draw before he is taught to write, 

and to measure before he is taught to draw. 

Every line, every measure, every word, is the result 
of the intelligence that is created by ripened sense- 
perceptions, and ought to be considered as a means 
to realise the progressive clearness of our ideas. The 
principles of teaching must then be deducted from the 
unvarying original type of the development of the 
human mind. 

The world lies at our feet like a sea of confused 
perceptions ; it is the work of art, i.e. of instruction, 
to dissipate this confusion, by separating the objects 
the one from the other, by grouping together those 
which are similar, in order to make them more clear 
to our senses, and thus enable us to form clear con- 
ceptions of them. Teaching attains this end by pre- 
senting the confused perceptions singly to our eyes, 
then by showing us them in their varying conditions, 
and finally by bringing them into connection with the 
whole sphere of our knowledge. 

Thus our knowledge proceeds from confused per- 
ceptions (Verwirrung) to definite perceptions (Be- 
stimmlieit), from definite perceptions to clear percep- 
tions (Klarheit), and from clear perceptions to distinct 
ideas (Deutlichkeit). 



208 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

Psycliological Course of Teaching — The natural 
transition from the impressions of sense-perceptions to 
Schivanen- the development and quickening of the 
gesang, § 73. faculty of thought has as its starting-point 
the fact of grouping, separating, and comparing the 
objects of perception. The child has a natural instinct 
to do this. It is for the human race to confine this 
instinct to its natural course, and not leave the educa- 
tion of it to chance. 

It is essentially important not to transform into ex- 
ercises of the intelligence what is only worth any- 
Ideeder thing as an exercise of the memory, and 
Elem.,^226. not to use what is only suitable to develop 
the mechanical skill of the hand, as if it were a means 
of development of the intellect and of the artistic 
faculty. 

Just so it is essential to keep exercises in the memo- 
rising of words apart from exercises in imprinting on 
the memory perceptions gained through the senses. 
For if we do not, we shall produce confusion in the 
children's minds, which must arise, if we mix impor- 
tant things and things of no consequence in our teach- 
ing, which is like people for a joke putting peel into 
a child's mouth, instead of the fruit itself. 

Man is the Centre of all Sense-perception — The 

clearness of our recognition of things varies 

ihre Kinder directly as their distance from our senses, 

lehrt, VI, for man is nothing else than his five 

§§ 6, 7. 

senses. 
Man is therefore himself the centre of all sense- 
perception and is an object of sense-perception to 
himself. Everything that you are yourself is easier 



SENSE-PERCEPTION 209 

for you to make clear and distinct in your mind than 
everything outside you. Everything you feel your- 
self is in itself a definite perception. Only what is 
outside you can be a confused perception for you. 
Everything you are conscious of, you are definitely 
conscious of. Everything you know yourself is in 
you, and defined by you. Consequently the way to 
definite conceptions opens itself more easily and more 
surely on this road than on any other, and nothing 
can be more lucid than the lucidity of this principle, 
— the knowledge of truth by man has as its starting- 
point man's knowledge of himself. 



CHAPTER V 

THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION OR ELEMENT- 
ARY METHOD 

1. First Instruction of the Child. — The ego as the centre 

of education : disadvantages of emulation. — First instruc- 
tion of the child. — The book for mothers. — Pestalozzi's 
experiment on a child of three. — The first books. — 
Principles of the first education. — Importance of vocabu- 
lary and nomenclature. 

2. Description of the Method in Application. — Intensive 

and not extensive education. — Language as the basis 
of instruction. — Simplification of the mechanism of in- 
struction. — Popularisation of science. — The book is to 
replace the teacher. — Mutual instruction. 

3. Educational Principles and Observations derived 

FROM Practical Experience. — The method supplements 
everything, even science. 

4. Elements of the Method. — Number, Form, Language. 

5. Methods of Application. — A. Sound. — a. Study of 

sounds used in speaking. — b. Study of sounds used in 
singing. — Study of language. — Number and form. — Dis- 
advantage of the catechetical method. — Examples of ap- 
plication. — Importance of language. — Novelty of the 
method. — Development of language. — The study of lan- 
guage : its point of starting and its aim. — Part played 
by grammar. — Relation of language to sense-perception 
and thought. — Study of foreign languages. — How the 
child learns his mother-tongue. 
B. Form and number. — Drawing. 
210 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 211 

1. First Instruction of the Child 

The Ego considered as the Centre of Education — 
The ego of the child, as centre of the independent 
development of the mind, is divided, as j. 
elementary education is, from the very derElem., 
beginning and in its essence into three §§^^~*i- 
parts. As in elementary education we must consider 
the education of the heart, the education of the mind, 
and the education of the body, so the Book for 
Mothers must teach the child, starting from himself 
as a whole, from his ego, to consider himself as heart, 
as mind, and as body. 

As body, he is an object for self-perception and feel- 
ing; as mind, an object for activity and consciousness 
of self; as heart, an object for activity of will and 
sentiment. 

The existence of each of these three faculties is 
again divided from the point of view of space and of 
time, and from the point of view of activity and re- 
ceptivity. 

The child must then of necessity learn to study 
himself, i.e. he must become objective toliimself. 

The Book for Mothers is based on this principle. 
The child is brought into connection with everything 
that concerns him. As he is obliged to search for all 
the objects which he names, himself, he sets in activity 
his faculties of jDerception and observation. When he 
has considered extensive existence, i.e. his existence 
considered from the point of view of space, his limbs, 
their qualities, their external relations, he proceeds to 
the faculties and activities of his temporal existence, 
i.e. his existence considered from the point of view of 



212 PESTALOZZrS EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

time, of his faculty of receptivity and of activity, his 
senses and powers, and thereby becomes more con- 
scious of himself, and awakes thus to a sensation, to 
a glimmer of consciousness of his relations to Nature 
and to his surroundings, which sensation becomes 
more and more clear and comprehensive. In con- 
nected consistent progress the sensible and the intel- 
lectual unite to form the unity of knowledge in him. 
The exterior and the interior, the subjective and 
objective, the power of knowledge and of speech, con- 
nect themselves the one to the other. As the out- 
ward uniting bond is language, so the inner uniting 
bond is the child's ego, i.e. his consciousness, his sense- 
perception, his feeling of himself. The pupil enters 
with full innocence and childlike ingenuousness in- 
deed, but at the same time with calm self-confidence, 
into the domain of the knowledge and experience of 
himself, of the world, and of men. He learns how to 
know himself, to be conscious of himself,, yet without 
presumption, and to move freely in the necessary 
limits and relations of his nature. It is true he does 
not attain the power of speaking on every subject; he 
cannot and he does not want to. But his speech is 
the speech of truth and the outcome of actual feeling, 
not of seeming and illusion. 

Disadvantages of Emulation — The child educated 
in the spirit of the elementary education is exercised 
Idee der in every moral, intellectual, and artistic 
Eiem., § Go. respect to seek the stimulus for the exer- 
tion of his powers in the use of these very powers. 
This power to depend on his own resources on all occa- 
sions has been made habitual to him by the method. 
He compares himself with no one, in no particular. 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 213 

Just as with respect to morality, he only asks him- 
self, " Am I good because I fear God, because I exer- 
cise my moral faculties ? " and never, " Am I better 
than another ? " so with respect to intellect, he asks 
himself, " Can I solve the problem assigned me, or can 
I not ? " and never, " Can I solve it better than any one 
else?" He knows no measure of his power outside 
himself, and the present time knows none and seeks 
none in us. 

The intense joy which the child feels at the dis- 
covery of a truth renders superfluous the means 
which consists in exciting emulation by increasing 
the self-love of the ones and humiliating the others. 

The first hour of the instruction of the child is the 
hour of his birth. Nature instructs him „^. ^ ^ , 
from the moment at which his senses be- ihre Kinder 
come capable of receiving her impres- l^hrt, I, §§ 
sions. 

All teaching is then nothing else than the art of 
helping this striving of nature after its own develop- 
ment, and this art is essentially based on the propor- 
tion and harmony of the impressions "which are to be 
made on the child's senses with the degree of his 
developed power. There is, then, a certain sequence 
to observe in the impressions which must be made on 
the child by the teaching, and the beginning and con- 
tinuation of these impressions must keep step with 
the child's developing powers. It is on the observa- 
tion of this principle that the composition of element- 
ary books which shall be really appropriate to our 
nature and our needs rests. 

The child must not begin to learn to read, nor even 



214 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

to learn his letters, until lie has been brought to an 
advanced stage of knowledge of language and know- 
ledge of things to be gained by sense-perception. 

It is wrong to teach children to read and write 
before the child really knows how to talk, and to 
think that he really knows how to talk before he is 
capable of feeling and thinking. The child must 
then first be taught to feel and to think, then to talk, 
and lastly to read and write. 

The child should have attained a high degree of 
perceptive knowledge, and also knowledge of his own 
language, before it is reasonable to teach him to read 
or even to teach him his letters. 

Children need from their earliest years psychologi- 
cal direction toward the reasonable sense-perception 
of all things. 

PestalozzVs Experiment on a Child of Three — Pesta- 
iozzi describes to us his application of his method on 
a child of three years of age, to whom he devoted an 
hour a day. "I experimented with letters, figures, 
and everything that came into my hands in teaching 
him, i.e. in attaining by all these means definite per- 
ceptions and expressions. I made him name precisely 
what he recognised in every object, — colour, parts, 
position, form, and number. I soon had to leave aside 
the first torment of youth, viz., those wretched letters 
of the alphabet. He would have nothing but pictures 
and objects, and soon he expressed himself precisely 
on objects which lay in the sphere of his cognition. 
He found in street, garden, and room general illustra- 
tions of his knowledge, and soon came to be capable 
of pronouncing correctly the most difficult names of 
plants and animals, and of comparing objects which 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 215 

he had never seen before with others with which he 
was already familiar, and also was soon capable of 
creating a definite perception of them in his mind; 
and although this experiment generally led us astray, 
and worked for the benefit of what was strange and 
remote to the disadvantages of the impressions created 
by what was present and near, nevertheless in many 
cases it shed light on the means of quickening the 
child in his dispositions, and of inciting him to self- 
activity in the preservation of his power. On the 
other hand, the experiment was not satisfactory as 
regards what I actually sought, because the boy had 
already three utterly unused years behind him, and I 
am convinced that Nature brings children before this 
age to the most definite consciousness of innumerable 
objects. It is only necessary for us to form the con- 
nection between psychological, artificial speech and 
this consciousness to bring it in them to a high degree 
of clearness, and thereby render them capable of con- 
necting both, the foundations of many-sided art and 
many-sided truth, to what Nature has already taught 
them ; and again to use what Nature has already taught 
them as means of explaining all the foundations of 
the art and the truth we desire to teach them. The 
capacity and the experience of children at this age 
are already great; but our unpsychological schools 
are essentially nothing but artificial machines which 
strangle those results of capacity and experience which 
Nature herself has called in the child into life. 

The First Books — To bring the child to perception 
of things by the senses, we must have, before we have 
ABC books, object-lesson books to make clear and 
luminous to him by perception (by the help of well- 



216 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

chosen real objects, which are either presented to his 
senses in their actuality, or in well-executed pictures 
or models) the notions which we wish to give him by 
speech. 

The first books must start from the most simple 
elements of human knowledge; they must deeply 
impress on the child's mind the most essential forms 
of all things ; they must develop clearly at an early 
age in him the first consciousness of the relations 
of number and space; they must furnish him with 
words and language for the whole extent of his 
consciousness and his experiences, and form easy, 
shallow steps out of the first rungs on the ladder of 
knowledge, by which Nature herself leads us to all 
art and all power. 

The lack of books of this kind leaves a great 
gap. 

Principles of the First Education — One should never 

reason with very young children, but should confine 

Txr. r. . 1 oneself in the development of their minds : 
Wie Gertrud ^ 

Hire Kinder Ij to extend more and more the circle of 
lehrt, I, §§ their sense-perception ; 2, to impress the 
perceptions of which they are conscious 
surely and distinctly on their minds ; 3, to give them 
comprehensive knowledge of language for everything 
which Nature or art has presented or will present to 
their consciousness. 

As these three points of view became daily clearer 
to Pestalozzi, a firm conviction gradually developed in 
his mind: 1, of the need of object-lesson books for 
the earliest years ; 2, of the necessity of a clear and 
definite method of explaining these books ; 3, of the 
need of a direction, based on these books and their 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 217 

method of explanation, to names and knowledge of 
words, which must be made familiar to the child, 
even before the time has arrived of teaching him his 
letters. 

Importance of Vocabulary and Nomenclature — The 
advantage to children of an early consciousness of 
and fluent use of a rich vocabulary is inestimable. 
The firm impression of the names impresses, too, the 
things themselves indelibly on their memory as soon 
as they are brought to their consciousness, and the 
stringing of names, if based on truth and accuracy, 
develops and maintains in them the consciousness of 
the actual relations of the things. The advantages of 
all this are progressive. One must only never think 
that because the child does not understand everything 
about a thing, that it is therefore of no use at all 
to him. 

2. Description of the Method ix Application 

This is how Fischer, who closely followed Pesta- 
lozzi's efforts, described the method which 
he saw applied at ... .^ 

" Pestalozzi's method is based on the following psy- 
chological principles : — 

^^ Intensive and not Extensive Education — 1. He de- 
sires to raise the intensity of the powers of the mind, 
and not only to enrich it extensively with ideas. He 
hopes to attain this by many ways. By repeating 
aloud to the children again and again words, explana- 
tions, sentences, and lengthy periods, and making the 
children repeat them after him, he hopes not only to 

1 Letter to Steinmiiller, published in the Bibliotheque des maitres 
cVecole helvetiques, St. Gall, 180X. 



218 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

attain the immediate separate object which e very- 
single exercise has, but also to form the voice, exer- 
cise the attention, and strengthen the memory. Por 
the same reason he makes them while repeating aloud 
after him draw lines, curves, or letters on their slates." 

Pestalozzi remarks here that he has found by expe- 
rience that children have a sense of proportion, and 
can wield a slate pencil several years sooner than 
they can wield a pen, or make small letters, and 
therefore he made them at an early age draw lines, 
angles, and arcs, and commit the definitions of these 
to memory. 

''With this object in view, Pestalozzi distributes 
thin films of transparent horn among his pupils ; on 
these films strokes and letters are engraved, and the 
pupils use them the more easily as models that they 
can lay them on the figures they have drawn, and as 
the horn is transparent, they can make the necessary 
com^3arisons. A twofold occupation at the same time 
is a preparation for the thousand cases and the occu- 
pations in life in which the attention must be divided 
without being distracted. Industrial schools, for in- 
stance, are founded on the basis of this possibility." 

Language as the Basis of Instruction — " 2. He 
connects his instruction entirely with language." 

Pestalozzi corrects this as follows : He considers 
speech, after the true observation of Nature, as the 
first means of attaining knowledge which man pos- 
sesses. He takes here a point of starting the prin- 
ciple that the child must learn to speak before it 
reasonably can be taught to read. But Pestalozzi 
adds that he connected the art of teaching children 
to speak with the perceptions which Nature gives 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PETICEPTION 219 

them and with those which are to be given them by 
art. 

" As a matter of fact, the results of all human pro- 
gress are deposited in language ; all that remains for 
us to do is to follow them psychologically on their 
path." 

(Pestalozzi here remarks that the clue to this psy- 
chological pursuit must be sought in the very nature 
of the development of language. The savage first 
names an object, then determines it, finally combines 
it, but in a very simple fashion, and only later attains 
the power of more precisely determining the varying 
presentations of it, with regard to time and circum- 
stances, by endings and combinations of words.) 

" Pestalozzi will not reason with the children until 
he has given them a supply of words and expressions, 
which they learn to apply in their sphere, to combine 
and to dissect. Therefore he enriches their memory 
with simple explanations of sensible objects, and 
teaches the child thereby to describe what_he sees 
around him, and consequently, to give an account of 
his presentations, and attain a mastery over them, in 
now first attaining a clear consciousness of those which 
were already latent in him." 

(Pestalozzi thinks that to bring children to reason, 
and to put them on the path of an independent mental 
power; one must, as far as possible, prevent them from 
thoughtlessly using their tongues, and not let them 
utter an opinion^ on things of which they have only a 
superficial knowledge. "I believe," says he, "that 
the time of learning is not the time of judging; the 
time of judging begins when we have finished learn- 
ing, when the causes which one judges, and may rightly 



220 PESTALOZZrs EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

judge, are mature ; and I believe that every judgment 
which is to have inner truth for the individual who 
utters it, must fall as ripe and perfect from a compre- 
hensive knowledge of their causes as the ripened ker- 
nel falls of itself, freely and without rough handling, 
perfect out of the shell.") 

" He imparts mechanical ease, and a certain rhythm 
in speaking, by making them repeat easy exercises in 
declension aloud all together." 

(Pestalozzi remarks that this was restricted to the 
names of sensible objects with which they were already 
familiar.) 

" They hereby gain an exceptional ease, and when 
they have learned by many examples to recognise and 
employ certain forms of definition, they bring, later 
on, the names of a thousand other objects, which sug- 
gest themselves, into the same forms, and give their 
explanations and definitions the stamp of a precision 
that is acquired through the senses." 

(Pestalozzi. " At the present time T am seeking in 
number, measure, and language the general and pri- 
mary fundaments for this purpose.") 

" 3. He strives to furnish data, or rubrics, or lead- 
ing ideas for all operations of the mind." 

(Pestalozzi explains that he seeks in all the extent 
of art and nature the fundamental points, the methods 
of perception, the facts which, by their definiteness 
and generality, may be used as fruitful means of 
facilitating the recognition and judgment of many 
subordinate or related objects, and thus he furnishes 
the children with data, which call their attention to 
similar objects ; he endorses for them series of analo- 
gous conceptions, by the definition of which the whole 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 221 

succession of series of objects may be classified and 
precised according to their essential differences.) 

" These data, however widely they may be scattered 
in their presentation, are connected the one with the 
other. They are prescDtations of which the one refers 
to the other, and therefore inspire the desire of dis- 
covery in the mind, through the human longing for 
the completion and for the facilitated combination of 
separate elements. 

" The rubrics guide to the classification of the ideas 
which are to be received ; they bring order into their 
chaotic mass ; and the framework thus erected causes 
the child all the more busily to fill up the separate di- 
visions. This is true of the chief rubrics of geography, 
natural history, etc. Moreover, the analogy which 
exists in the choice of the objects comes to the aid of 
the memory. 

'' The guiding ideas lie in certain problems, which are, 
or could be made, the subject-matter of whole sciences. 
If these questions, resolved into their component parts, 
are presented in an intelligible form to the child, based 
on data, which it already has or easily finds, and are 
used as exercises in observation, they tend to make the 
child's mind work incessantly on their solution. The 
simple question, 'What objects in the three natural 
kingdoms can man use for his clothing?' gives an 
example of this course. The child will consider and 
examine many things from this point of view, of which 
he has an idea that they may furnish him with a con- 
tribution to the solution of this technological problem. 
In this manner he himself constructs the knowledge 
which he is to acquire. To be sure, the necessary 
material must be offered him in every possible manner. 



222 PESTALOZZrS EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

'' To the guiding ideas also belong sentences, which 
are at first only committed to memory as practical 
maxims, but by slow degrees acquire force, applica- 
tion, and meaning, and thereby impress themselves 
more deeply, and take a more lasting hold on the 
mind." 

Simplification of the Mechanism of Instruction — 4. 
'^He desires to simplify the mechanism of teaching 
and learning.^ What he includes in his text-books 
and will have the children taught, ought to be so simple 
that every mother, and later on every teacher, with a 
minimum of capacity, could comprehend it, expound, 
explain, and combine it. Above all he desires by 
means of easy lessons in speaking and reading to make 
the first education of their children pleasant and inter- 
esting to mothers, and thus, as he expresses it, to do 
away with the necessity of elementary schools, or at 
least supplement them by an improved home educa- 
tion. 

" Just for this very reason he wants to make experi- 
ments with mothers as soon as his text-books are 
printed, and it is to be hoped that government will 
cooperate by offering small prizes to be competed 
for." 

(Pestalozzi recognises the difficulties on this head. 
It is the general cry that the mothers will not allow 
themselves to be persuaded to add new work to their 

1 '' It is incontestable that the human mind is not equally recep- 
tive of the impressions which are to be made by the instruction in 
every form in which they are presented. The art of discovering 
those forms which must excite its receptivity is the mechanism of 
the art of instruction which every teacher should investigate in 
Nature, and should learn from her to the profit of his art." (Pesta- 
lozzi's note to the above.) 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 223 

cleaniDg and washing, to their knitting and sewing, 
to all the toils of their domestic avocations, and to all 
the distractions of their life. "But," he says, "it is 
not work, it is play." It robs them of no time, on the 
contrary it tills the emptiness of a thousand weary 
moments. People have no understanding for this, and 
keep on saying, " But they w^on't do it." Father Boni- 
face said the same thing, when he declared to Zwingli, 
in 1519, that mothers would never consent to read the 
Bible with their children, and in 1522, when he found 
he was mistaken, he cried, " I would not have believed 
it ! " Pestalozzi is sure of his means and hopes that 
a new Father Boniface will utter the same cry as the 
original one did in 1522.) 

Popularisation of Science — "5. He w^ants to popu- 
larise science." This is connected with the preceding. 

(Pestalozzi explains that he only wants to attain 
for all men the faculties of perception and thought 
which are necessary for all who would lead wise and 
independent lives.) 

" This is to be attained by the composition of text- 
books, which shall contain the chief elements of science, 
expressed in well-chosen words and sentences, and at 
the same time furnish the mighty blocks out of which 
later on the building can easily be constructed." 

(Pestalozzi remarks here, the text-books themselves 
should be nothing else than an artificial connection of 
the instruction in all its branches, with that which 
Nature herself does for the development of men in 
all conditions and in all circumstances ; the artificial 
preparation of the faculties which man needs, for the 
easy use of what Nature herself does in all branches 
of his development.) 



224 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

'^ Further, tlie text-books are to be distributed gratis, 
or sold at a low price. They must form a series and 
a whole. For the same end he would have maps, 
geometrical figures, etc., printed and sold at a very 
low price, the profits to be devoted to the foundation 
of an institute, school, or orphanage." 

(Pestalozzi says this is going too far. He cannot 
give all the profits to an orphanage, but he promises 
to give the greater part and to continue to his death to 
devote himself and all his energies to the orphanage, 
if government or private individuals render possible 
the foundation of an orphanage carried on according 
to his principles.) 

The Book is to replace the Teacher — " It will be a 
great gain to school instruction if the teacher, given a 
minimum of energy, cannot only not harm, but may 
even make right progress possible." 

(Pestalozzi considers this an essential point. He 
believes that it is not conceivable that popular educa- 
tion can advance a single step, until forms of instruc- 
tion shall have been found, which will make the 
teacher, at any rate for all elementary knowledge, the 
mere mechanical tool of a method, the results of which 
must spring forth by reason of their own nature, and 
not by the art of the man directing. I assume as 
absolutely true, that a text-book is only so far good 
as an uninstructed schoolmaster can use it, at any rate 
as far as his absolute needs are concerned, almost as 
well as one who is educated and gifted. It must es- 
sentially be so constructed, that the unlearned man, and 
even the mother, may find sufficient direction in its 
guiding clue, to be always a step farther than the 
child itself in the artificial, progressive development 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 225 

to which it is to lead the child. More is not necessary, 
and more you will not be able to give the mass of 
schoolmasters, at any rate for centuries to come.) 

Mutual Instruction — "A further gain in this direc- 
tion will be that many children can be taught at the 
same time, emulation can be awakened, and the mu- 
tual communication among the pupils themselves of 
the matter acquired facilitated ; and the existing cum- 
brous methods of enriching the memory by other arti- 
ficial means, by analogy of matter taught, order, 
increased attention, repeating aloud, etc., may be 
avoided or at least abbreviated." 



3. Educational Principles and Observations 
derived from practical experience 

Pestalozzi prefaces that these are mere observations 
founded on practical experience, and must not be con- 
sidered in the light of matured educational ^ 
truths, but only as initial views which de- ihre Kinder 
velop gradually into the fuller and more ^^'^''^' ^^> §§ 
definite form of educational principles. 

General Rules — By a well-ordered nomenclature 
indelibly printed on the memory a general foundation 
in all branches of knowledge may be laid, on which 
teachers and taught may build spontaneously, and 
slowly but surely, clear conceptions on all subjects of 
knowledge. 

Pestalozzi obtained a sureness in clear conception of 
all things in his pupils' minds and a manual dexterity, 
by exercising them in free-hand drawing of lines, an- 
gles, and curves, the results of which must decidedly 
have tended to make everything in the sphere of 



226 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

their perceptive experience gradually assume a clear 
and definite form. 

The exercising of children in the rudiments of arith- 
metic with real objects, or at any rate with dots to 
represent these, must give a solid foundation to arith- 
metic in its whole extent, and must secure the further 
progress from error and confusion. 

The definitions of walking, standing, lying, sitting, 
etc., committed by the pupils to memory, showed the 
connection of the rudimentary principles with the aim 
which, according to Pestalozzi, should be kept in view, 
viz., the rendering of all conceptions clear and distinct. 
By making children define objects which are so clear 
to them that experience can contribute nothing to 
their greater precision, one deters them, on the one 
hand, from the presumption of trying to define any- 
thing they do not know ; while on the other, one gives 
them a power of defining what they really do know, 
that enables them to define consistently, precisely, 
briefly, and comprehensively everything in the whole 
sphere of their perceptive knowledge. 

Truth which springs from perception renders sujDer- 
fluous wearisome discourse and the manifold strata- 
gems now in use, which have approximately as much 
effect against error and prejudice as the ringing of 
church bells against the dangers of a thunderstorm ; 
for such a truth creates in man a power which of 
itself excludes the possibility of the penetration 
of prejudice or error into his mind, and where, in 
consequence of the eternal chatter of our species, 
these do reach his ears, they remain so isolated that 
they cannot have the same injurious effect as they 
have on the average individual of our time, who have 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 227 

truth and error, both without sense-perception, accom- 
panied by mere cabalistic incantations, flashed on 
their minds, as it were, by a magic lantern. 

The collecting of plants, and the discussions to 
which this has given rise, have shown that the whole 
extent of knowledge which is gained by the use of 
our senses springs from observation of Nature, and 
from the industrious collecting and retaining of every- 
thing she offers to our knowledge. 

Tlie Method supplements Everythi7ig, even Science — 
All that the schoolmaster has to do is to learn how to 
use the method, in order to bring himself and his 
pupils to all the ends which should be attained by 
instruction. Consequently what is needed is not eru- 
dition, but sound common-sense and practice in the 
method. 

The principle of beginning with what is easiest and 
j)erfecting the pupil in that before proceeding further, 
then of adding in gradual progress always only a very 
little to what is already perfectly learned, will, not cer- 
tainly actually produce, but at any rate keep alive in 
the pupils a confidence and a consciousness of power 
which is a high testimonial to their unweakened, 
innate strength. 

It is only necessary, then, to lead the children, 
never to drive them. 

Formerly the teacher was obliged, in every subject 
of instruction, to keep on saying: "Think. Do you 
not remember ? " It cannot be otherwise. If, for in- 
stance, in the arithmetic lesson he asks, " How many 
times is seven contained in sixty-three ? " the child 
has no sensualised background for its answer, and has 
to discover it with difiiculty by reflection ; now, accord- 



228 PESTALOZZrS EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

ing to the method, nine times seven objects appear 
before his eyes, and he has learned to count them as 
nine rows of sevens ; consequently, he no longer needs 
to think about this question, he knows perfectly from 
what he has already learned the answer to the question 
he now hears for the first time, viz., that seven is con- 
tained nine times in sixty-three. And similarly in all 
subjects of the method. 

Consequently appealing to reflection is not included 
in Pestalozzi's method. Every exercise must flow 
spontaneously and easily from what the child already 
knows. 

It was noted that the words and pictures which 
Pestalozzi laid separately before the child in teaching 
them to read, made an impression on their minds very 
different to that made by the compound phrases which 
ordinary school instruction generally presents them 
with. For these phrases are of such a nature that 
the child could have no sense-perception of the nature 
of the separate words, and they see in these combina- 
tions no simple component parts which they already 
know, but a tangle of incomprehensible combinations 
of unknown objects, by which they are led, contrary 
to their nature, contrary to their faculties, and with 
manifold delusion, to work themselves into series of 
thoughts, which are not only absolutely strange to 
them in their essence^ but are also couched in an 
artificial language, of which they have not even tried 
to learn the rudiments. 

Pestalozzi condemns the hotch-potch (Mischmasch) 
of the school knowledge of his time. He always gives 
his children, as Nature gives savages, only one image 
at a time, and then seeks to find a word for this 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 229 

image. This simplicity of presentation creates in 
them no judgments and no conclusions, as nothing is 
presented to them as doctrine, or taught them in any 
kind of connection with truth or error, but everything 
is presented to them as mere material for sense-per- 
ception, and as a background for future judgments 
and conclusions. 

4. Elements of the Method 

Number, Form, Language- — The fundamental ele- 
ments of the method appeared suddenly to 
Pestalozzi like a Deus ex machina. .T*^ Gertrud 

Number, form, and language are the lehrt, vi, 
means of rendering all our perceptions clear §§ ^~^^' 
and distinct. 

When a confused conglomeration of objects is 
brought before our eyes, and we wish to dissect it 
and gradually make it clear to ourselves, we have to 
consider three things : 1, how many things and how 
many kinds of things there are before our eyes, i.e. 
their number; 2, what they are like, i.e. their form; 
3, what they are called, i.e. their names. 

Number, form, and language, then, together form the 
elementary means of all instruction, for the sum of 
the exterior qualities of an object is to be found in the 
limits of its surface, i.e. are limited by its form, in the 
relation of its number, and are made to belong to our 
consciousness by language. 

The art of education must therefore make it a fixed 
law to take this threefold foundation as its point of 
starting, and strive : 1, to teach children to regard 
every object which is brought to their consciousness 



230 PESTALOZZrS EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

as a unity, i.e. separated from those objects with which 
it seems connected; 

2, to teach them to realise the form of every object, 
i.e. its size and proportions ; 

3, to make them acquainted, at as early an age as is 
possible, with the whole extent of the vocabulary 
appertaining to and the names of all the objects they 
know. 

The first efforts of art must then be directed to 
form with the highest psychological skill, to strengthen 
and to give power to the fundamental faculties of 
counting, measuring, and speaking, and consequently 
to bring the means of the development and education 
of these three faculties to its utmost simplicity, its 
highest consistency, and to the greatest harmony with 
itself. 

The only difficulty which occurred to Pestalozzi was 
the question, Why are not all the qualities of the 
things which are made known to us by our senses just 
such elements of our knowledge as number, form, and 



name 



The answer is very simple : All possible objects 
must have number, form, and name, but no other 
quality is common to all. 

All the other qualities, therefore, cannot be con- 
sidered as elements of knowledge. Pestalozzi also 
remarked that all the other qualities of the things 
which are made known to us by the medium of our 
five senses are capable of being directly connected 
with these elements of human knowledge; whence 
he concludes, that in the instruction of children the 
knowledge of all the other qualities of the objects 
must be immediately connected to the previously 



THE IVIETHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 231 

acquired knowledge of form, number, and name. 
Through the consciousness of the unity, form, and 
name of an object our perception of it becomes a 
definite conception; by gradual cognition of all its 
other qualities, it becomes a clear conception ; by the 
cognition of the connection of all its other character- 
istics it becomes a distinct conception. 

Sound, form, and number, then, are the points of 
starting taken by Nature herself for all instruction. 
In the same way all progress in instruction should be 
guided up to its perfection, in the limits of an unin- 
terrupted course, which occupies all the elementary 
powers at the same time, and maintains equilibrium 
among them, by which alone it is made possible to 
conduct in all these three divisions uniformly from 
confused sense-perception to definite perception, from 
definite perception to clear conception, and from clear 
conception to distinct conception. 

Thus art is essentially and most ultimately con- 
nected with nature, and the problem, to find a com- 
mon origin of all artificial means of instruction, and the 
form in which the education of the human race may be 
determined, by the very essence of our nature, solved. 

Pestalozzi comes back in another of his works to 
these three elements of our knowledge, ^^^^ ^^^ 
which, he says, " are latent in the organ- Elem., §§ 
ism of man's intellectual nature, and are the '^'^"^ 
product of its activity. They are of a positive nature, 
they cannot be brought to the child's perception without 
exercising his hand and his eye, without exciting 
pleasure and feeling, without setting in activity heart 
and will. 



232 PESTALOZZrS EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

The method which is based on these elements 
differs especially from methods hitherto employed, 
in that these latter gave conceptions without ele- 
ments, and ideas without sense-perception. 

The exercises on number are especially calculated 
to develop the faculty of pure intellectual deduction, 
from its first germ to its perfection. 

The exercises on form likewise develop this faculty, 
both by the inevitable and necessary impression which 
they make, and by the results of the uninterrupted 
continuity and exhaustive nature of the combinations 
of straight and curved lines, and the relations and 
proportions actually existing, which are deduced from 
these. 

All truth, and all the deductions which are made 
by the help of number, develop spontaneously from 
the pure essence of the human faculty of thought, 
i.e. the faculty of thought develops by the use of 
these means as it were of itself. 

On the other hand, all truth, and all the deductions 
which are made by the help of form, are contained as 
pure and perfect products of the mind in the essence 
of straight and curved lines, and in the combinations 
which it is possible to make of them. 

Both kinds of exercises lead not only to the recog- 
nition of truth, but also decidedly to its discovery. 
They not only exercise the faculty of thought in their 
examination, but also quicken the faculty of imagina- 
tion and incite it to free play in the search for and 
creative combination of them.^ 

1 However, it is not advisable to make this study obligatory on 
all the pupils, but only on the more gifted ones. {Schwanengesang, 
§72.) 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 283 

Language is no less an absolute condition of the 
development of the humanity of our nature. It is 
the means given to man by which above all he can 
express whsit he knows, feels, desires, and hopes. 
Language, regarded in its most general pedagogic 
sense, is the sum of man's intellectual consciousness 
of himself and Nature. 

Without language the child cannot become dis- 
tinctly conscious of his sense-perceptions and his 
impressions of Nature, and cannot be conducted to 
the recognition of even the first elements of number 
and form. 

Perception in the intellectual world connects itself 
with lariguage, just as sense-perception in the material 
world attaches itself to outward Nature, and just as 
outward Nature sums up the material world, so 
language is the sensible manifestation of the intellec- 
tual world enclosed in our mind. 

Considered as a pedagogic element, language, like 
form and number, is independent of the objects on 
which it exercises its power, but is confined in the 
means of its development to the means of development 
of the human faculties which have gone before. The 
course to follow must therefore be the same as for 
form and number. The child must learn to speah 
exactly in the same way as it has learned to think. 
This is the secret of the wonderful harmony of the 
method. 



234 Pi:STALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

5. Methods of Application 
A, Sound 

The first elementary means of instruction is soun 

From sound we derive the followinar speci*»? 
Wie Gertrud o • . .■ & i- 

ihre Kinder nieans of instruction : — 
lehrt, VII, 1. The study of sounds, or the means of 

^^ ' forming the organs of speech. 

2. The study of imrds, or the means of teaching the 
pupil to know single objects. 

3. The study of language, or the means of teaching 
the pupil to express himself on all the objects he 
knows, and on all their qualities. 

1. Study of Sounds 

The study of sounds is divided into two parts: — 

(a) The study of sounds used in speaking. 

(b) The study of sounds used in singing. 

(a) The Study of Sounds used in Speaking — We 
must on no account leave to chance the manner in 
which spoken sounds are brought to the child's ears. 
It is important that the consciousness of these sounds 
should be developed in his mind, before the first let- 
ters are put before his eyes, and the first exercises in 
reading begun with him. 

The first reading book must therefore contain all the 
sounds of which the language consists, and these 
should be brought in every household to the ears of 
the baby in the cradle, by another child that is learn- 
ing to read, and indelibly imprinted on the baby's 
memory, long before he is capable of pronouncing a 
single one of them. 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 235 

For this purpose Pestalozzi wrote his Book for 
Mothers, to which he intended adding a Book of the 
Method, which was to be such that the most inexperi- 
enced mother could realise Pestalozzi's plan without 
adding a word of her own. 

Pestalozzi himself recognised later on that these 
attempts had been rendered superfluous by ihid., Vii, 
the progress made in psychology, and dis- § 56. 
continued their use. He confesses besides, elsewhere, 
that " all this must be considered as an investigation 
into mysterious processes of education, on the nature 
of which he was far from being clear," and that " all 
these attempts, results of not perfectly matured con- 
ceptions, have remained in the condition of unexecuted 
projects." 

(5) Study of JSounds used in Singing — As the study 
of these sounds could not contribute to ibid., YII, 
produce clearness of conception, it does not § i^- 
enter into the means of instruction which Pestalozzi 
is here considering ; he consequently postpones giving 
us his theory on the subject, merely recommending 
that no new exercise should be begun until the previous 
one has been thoroughly mastered. 

2. Study of Words 

The study of words, or rather of nouns, will be pur- 
sued again at the beginning with the help of the Book 
for Mothers, in which are mentioned in 
series of kinds and sorts the most essential 
objects in the world, — those which are connected with 
natural history, history, and geography with human 
callings and relations. These series are .s^iven to the 



236 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

cMld at first as simple reading exercises as soon as 
he has finished the first reading-book in which he has 
learnt to read, and gradually he comes to learn them 
by heart. The profit derived from this study is im- 
mense for the future, and singularly facilitates the 
instruction that follows. 



3. Study of Language 

Aim — What is the supreme aim of language ? 

.„,. ^ , Evidently to lead man from obscure per- 
Wie Gertrud *' -^ 

ihre Kinder ceptions to distinct conceptions. 

lehrt, VII, What are the means to be employed 

RK 20-44 

in attaining this aim ? The means are 
threefold : — 

1. We recognise an object generally, and name it as 
unity, as object. 

2. We become gradually conscious of its characteris- 
tics, and learn to name these. 

3. We acquire by language the power of more pre- 
cisely determining these characteristics of the objects, 
and making ourselves clear as to their variable condi- 
tions, by modifications in the words themselves, and 
by combinations of them. 

In order to teach the child to know and to designate 
the distinctive characteristics of objects, we must teach 
him : — 

1. To express himself clearly on number and form, 
which are the most comprehensive general abstractions 
of physical nature. 

2. To express himself clearly on all other qualities 
of objects, both by those which can be perceived by 
the five senses, and by those which cannot, but which 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 237 

are recognised by our faculties of imagination and 
judgment. 

Number and form must not be presented to the 
child's mind as inherent qualities of single objects, 
but as a physical generality. He must not only be 
able at an early age to call a round thing round, and a 
square thing square, but he must, if it is possible, 
almost beforehand have the idea of round, of square, of 
unity, impressed on his mind as a pure abstract concep- 
tion, so that he may connect everything which he finds 
in Nature to be round, or square, to be single, fourfold, 
etc., to the word which expresses the generality of this 
conception. And here we see, besides, why language, 
as means of expressing number and form, must be con- 
sidered by itself, separated from the way in which it 
must be regarded as means of expressing all other 
qualities, which our five senses enable us to perceive 
in the objects of Nature. 

The Book for Mothers is drawn up in such a manner 
that all the kinds of physical generalities which are 
made known to us by our five senses are there put 
into language, and mothers are thereby enabled to 
make the most exact expressions for them familiar to 
the child, without any exertion of their own. 

As to qualities not directly perceived by the five 
senses, which are made known to us by the help of 
our faculty of com^mrison, of imagination, and of deduc- 
tion, Pestalozzi remains true to his principle of making 
no kind of human judgment seem ripe before it really 
is, but utilises the inevitable knowledge of such 
abstract terms in children of this age, as mere memory 
work, and perhaps, too, as light food for their imagina- 
tion and their power of guessing. With regard to 



238 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

objects directly perceived by our five senses, concern- 
ing which it is desirable to bring the child as quickly 
as possible to the power of expressing itself precisely, 
Pestalozzi proceeds as follows : he takes the substan- 
tives which are distinguished by striking characteris- 
tics, perceived by us by the help of our five senses, 
from the dictionary, and j)^ts the adjectives which 
express these characteristics after them ; e.g. : — 

Aal {eel) — slippery, worm-shaped, leather-skinned; 
Abend {evening) — peaceful, cheerful, cool, rainy; 
Achse {axle) — strong, weak, greasy; 
Acker {field) — sandy, clayey, sowed, manured, fertile, 
unproductive. 

Then he reverses the proceeding, and looks up in the 
dictionary adjectives which express striking charac- 
teristics of objects which have been perceived by the 
senses, puts after them substantives which have the 
peculiar characteristics expressed by the adjectives ; 

e.g.: — 

round — bullet, hat, moon, sun; 

light — feather, down, air; 

heavy — gold, lead, oak; 

warm — stove, summer days, glow; 

high — towers, mountains, giants, trees; 

deep — seas, lakes, cellars, trenches; 

soft — meat, wax, butter; 

elastic — steel springs, whalebone; etc. 

Far from preventing the children from thinking for 
themselves, Pestalozzi asks them to give him other 
examples, and they sometimes find excellent ones, 
which would not have occurred to the master. 

Thus the sphere of their knowledge is extended, 
and their knowledge itself made more precise in a 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 239 

way that would be impossible, or only to be realised 
with difficulty, by mere catechising, or at any rate 
would only be attainable with the use of far greater 
art, and with far greater trouble. 

Disadvantage of the Catechetical Method. — The child 
is bound down, partly by the limits of the fixed idea 
on which it is being catechised, partly by the form in 
which he is catechised, and finally by the limits of 
the teacher's sphere of knowledge, and moreover by 
his anxiety not to be thrown off the rails of his arti- 
ficiality. All these limits fall away in Pestalozzi's 
method. 

Examples of Application — Then he tries to make 
the objects already partially known to the child still 
more clear by the help of the dictionary. He makes 
four chief divisions : (1) geography, (2) history, 
(3) physical geography, (4) natural history. 

After that comes the ego, and all that concerns man 
himself : — 

1. As a purely physical being in his connection with 
the animal kingdom. 

2. As a social being. 

3. As a moral being. 

And these are divided again into forty subdivisions. 

After having thus worked through the dictionary, 
Pestalozzi considers how best to classify the objects, 
the names of which the child has learnt in alphabeti- 
cal order. 

After alphabetical order he takes scientific order, 
using numbers for reference. 

Thus, in geography, he divides Germany into ten 
sections, numbers these 1, 2, 3, etc., and adds to the 
name of each town in his alphabetical list the number 



240 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

corresponding to the section to which it belongs ; e.g. 
Aachen 8, Abenberg 4, Acken 10, etc. The child after 
some practice will be able to read off : — 

Aachen is in the Westphalian section. 
Abenberg is in the Prankish section. 
Acken is in the Low Saxon section, etc. 

i'inally, children must be taught to designate pre- 
cisely by language the relation of the objects one to 
the other, and their modifications as regards number, 
time, proportion ; or rather, to make still more distinct 
the nature, qualities, and powers of all objects which 
they have had brought to their consciousness by the 
teaching of the names, and which have been made 
clear to a certain extent by the adding the names of 
the qualities to the names of the objects. 

Such should be the basis of a real grammar, and 
such the progressive course by which we are con- 
ducted to the final aim of instruction, viz, clearness of 
ideas. 

The first teaching of language must therefore be 
through speech alone, without a word of any rule. 
The two things, exercise of pronunciation and the 
learning of words, must be kept perfectly distinct, 
and the pupil exercised sufficiently in the first, quite 
independently of the second. Later on the mother 
combines the two, and makes the child repeat after 
her sentences in the following form : — 

Who is ? What are ? 

The father is good. 

Birds of prey are carnivorous. 

Stags are light-footed. 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 241 

Who lias ? What has ? 

The lion has strength. 
Man has reason. 
The dog has a good nose. 
The elephant has a proboscis. 

Who wants ? What wants ? 

The hungry man wants to eat. 
The creditor wants to be paid. 
The prisoner wants to be set free. 

And so on with wlio can f who ought ? who must f etc., 
finally with other verbs and their derivatives, achteri, ' 
verachten, erachten, heobachten, etc. 

Pestalozzi afterwards makes phrases which become 
more and more lengthy on the same verb ; e.g, : — 

I shall. 

I shall retain. 

I shall not retain my health otherwise. 

I shall not retain my health after all I have suffered in my 
illness otherwise. 

I shall not retain my health, after all I have suffered in my 
illness, otherwise than by practising the greatest temperance. 

These exercises are accompanied by descriptions 
and definitions of objects or simple actions; e.g. : — 

A hell is a broad, thick, round cup open at the bottom, etc. 
Walking is moving oneself forward step by step, etc.i 

And the same series of phrases is conjugated in all 
tenses and in all persons. 

1 Pestalozzi during his stay at Burgdorf drew up a grammar 
according to his principles, of which Seyffarth has published some 
fragments under the title, The Natural Schoolmaster, Der natiir- 
liche Schulmeister, Vol. XVI of the Complete Works. 



242 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

The examples sliould be of an instructive character, 
appropriate to the circumstances of the children, and 
calculated to inspire edifying sentiments. 

Importance of Language. Novelty of the MetJiod — 

Pestalozzi dwells on the importance of lan- 

ihre Kinder guage, which he says he has utilised more 

lehrt, VII, than has hitherto been the case, as a means 

§§46-49. „ . . , . . ' 

01 gaming clearness of conception. 

The child must learn to talk before one can talk 
with him. The mistake made by older methods was 
' that of assuming a knowledge of language in the child, 
before it has been imparted to him. 

Language is an incommensurable art, or rather the 
sum of all the arts which our race has attained. It 
gives the child, in a few moments, what Nature has 
needed thousands of years to give to men. The ig- 
norance of the lower classes, who cannot be made to 
understand anything, is due to the fact that they are 
not taught to speak. 

Language is considered in the abstract, in its most 
Idee general pedagogic sense, the sum of man's 

der Elem., intellectual consciousness of himself and 

§§34,35. j^j,t„,e 

As every human activity is inseparable from con- 
sciousness, and necessarily reveals itself as human 
consciousness, so speech is inseparable from all human 
study. 

Just as the child cannot become distinctly conscious 
of its perceptions and impressions of Nature without 
language, so he cannot be led, without it, to the recog- 
nition of the first elements oi form and mimher. 

It is clear that the course by which language can 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 243 

humanly develop the child's mind must be the same 
as that by which number and form do so. The child 
must then learn to sjjeak as it has learned to think. 

Development of Language in the Child — The word 
of the mother is no mere animal sound to the child 
even in the very beginning. Even if he cannot yet 
distinguish the word he hears from her mouth from 
other sounds, nevertheless it appeals to him in human 
fashion. The word of his loving mother is a loving, 
laughing babble, like his own. He sees in it already 
love, tender solicitude, guidance, and seriousness. 

The utterance of his sensual needs soon no longer 
contents him. He cries less, and babbles more. Now 
he wants to imitate the mother's babble, her loving 
tone and her serious tone. The consciousness of the 
mother's words is no longer the consciousness of an 
empty sound ; the first consciousness of both language 
and the power of speech has developed in him. His 
desire of being able to speak becomes more lively. It 
is still difficult, but he exerts himself, he will speak, 
he succeeds in getting out a word. The mother is 
delighted, she hugs her baby, who can talk. He seems 
to her a new apparition, a newly created child. He 
seems to her a more human being. The child's sense 
of power is quickened, both by the consciousness of 
his success and by his mother's love. He talks more 
and more, and the mother exerts herself more and 
more, in her blissful consciousness of joy and love, to 
satisfy and quicken the child's eagerness to talk. The 
intellectual ego of the child is organised. His inner 
consciousness of himself awakes, with the word /, 
which he speaks for the first time, and with the sub- 
lime expression / am, he has gained himself, and with 



244 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

himself an eternally fixed centre of all perception and 
experience of the world. This /, a mirror of the 
world, which connects him at once, eternally and 
infinitely, to the world, and to the objects in it, 
becomes in its turn the general point of starting of 
the elementary study of language, the centre of which 
has been fixed in the idea of the Book for Mothers. 

The Study of Language. Its Point of Starting and 
its Aim — The development of the facidty of language 
Schwanen- ^^ connected with the natural development 
gesang, of the faculty of sense-perception. Both 

§§ 47-52. i-g^^g YdQ as their point of starting. From 
the moment that one begins to put empty words in 
the child's mouth, and imprint them on his memory, 
as if they were knowledge of things, or the means of 
learning the knowledge of things, one departs from 
the principle, ^^ Life educates.^'' One thereby only 
conducts the child to error, presumption, and superfici- 
ality. On the other hand, if we follow this principle 
exactly, the teaching of language becomes a means of 
application of the knowledge gained by sense-percep- 
tion, and its task consists in gaining for this a higher 
degree of usefulness. 

The study of language, therefore, with every single 
child, depends on the extent and precision of the 
knowledge, gained by sense-perception, which he pos- 
sesses, and the teacher must above all seek to fill up 
the gaps which may exist in this respect. 

The art of naturally extending and quickening the 
impressions made by sense-perception is the only true 
foundation of all means of the naturally furthering 
the learning of the mother tongue. The outward 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 245 

forms of speech, the sounds themselves, are without 
living connection with the impressions which form the 
basis of their signification, are mere empty sounds. 
It is only by the consciousness of their connection 
with the impressions of the objects of sense-percep- 
tion that they become true human words. 

The initial preparation for this, what the child 
hears spoken by those around him, is for a long time 
purely mechanical; but this mechanical preparation 
for learning to speak demands the whole attention of 
the persons who have influence on it. The words 
which the infant hears from those around him only 
gradually become intellectually educative. For a long 
time they only make a sensual impression on his 
hearing, like the ringing of bells, the blow of a ham- 
mer, the sounds made by animals, and other sounds 
of Nature. But this impression is important in the 
learning to speak. The impression on the sense of 
hearing gradually becomes full and complete. As 
soon as it becomes complete in the sense of hearing, 
it passes gradually into the power of the mouth to 
imitate it in speaking. The child learns at this 
tender age to pronounce a number of word-sounds, the 
sense of which it does not know; but it is thereby 
prepared to comprehend this sense with infinitely 
greater facility and more lastingly, than it would if 
mouth and ear were not already familiar with the 
words. 

Elementary education does not, however, content 
itself with utilising the impressions which Nature 
brings accidentally and in confused conglomeration 
to the child's senses, in the development of his faculty 
of speech, merely just as they come and present them- 



246 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

selves ; it extends its influence to arranging them in 
the true order, according to the extent of the real 
needs of human nature, and to bringing its utilisation 
into harmony with those needs. And it must do so. 
For as it is necessary and good for the development of 
the child's faculty of sense-perception, that the circle 
of the objects of his sense-perception in his surround- 
ings be comprehensive, and satisfy the needs of the 
development of all knowledge that is essential to and 
necessary for him, without, however, going beyond 
the needs of his state of life and his capabilities ; just 
so it is necessary, that the circle of the knowledge of 
language, in the limits of which the child is to learn 
to speak, must be comprehensive, and satisfy the needs 
of his state of life and his capabilities : but not 
beyond ; otherwise, in both cases, the acquisition of the 
necessary and essential conceptions becomes retarded, 
weakened, scattered, and confused. This point of 
view is equally true, and equally important, in the 
means of development and education of all the human 
faculties. Even with the poorest child, the child 
whose position and circumstances are most limited, 
one can never carry too far the real and solid develop- 
ment of the essential faculties, by natural and ele- 
mentary means ; he can never become by these means 
too willing, too reasonable, too active, or too indus- 
trious. 

The study of language in the abstract, and at the 
commencement, is not the task of the education of the 
mind, but consists in tcdking and hearing people talk. 

Part played by Grammar. Criticism of Methods em- 
ployed in the Study of Language — The knowledge of 
rules of grammar is nothing else but a touchstone, used 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 247 

to see whether the natural means of talking and> of 
hearing others talk have attained their aim. These 
rules ought to come at the end of a rightly ordered 
study of language, and not at the beginning. 

But in teaching languages other than the mother 
tongue, people have long set up an unnatural division 
between knowing how to talk in a language, and know- 
ing the language itself, the intellectual part of which 
must be prepared for and facilitated to the child, 
by the mechanical means of ordinary speech, and in a 
manner so as to make him have a dawning conscious- 
ness of it before he is brought by the study of rules to 
have a clear consciousness of it. People sometimes 
admit the truth of this assertion as regards modern 
languages; they admit it because they cannot help 
themselves; but they contest it most emphatically 
with regard to dead languages, alleging that the teach- 
ing of the classics, in spite of its lack of continuity, 
and the very faulty character of the routine methods 
of the rudiments, has had excellent results, and in the 
more advanced stage is really built on a firm and psy- 
chological foundation. But although this last is a fact, 
it nevertheless is true, that, as a rule, the earlier stages 
of classical teaching cannot be considered either natu- 
ral or satisfactory, either from a psychological or from 
a mnemonic point of view. In. other words, the pres- 
ent routine treatment of the teaching of the rudiments 
of the classics is unnatural, both from a psychological 
and from a mnemonic point of view. 

The study of language constitutes the connecting 
link between the faculty of sense-perception and that of 
the faculty of thought. Without it the teaching of 
number and form is helpless. 



248 PESTALOZZrS EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

The three faculties, perception, language, and thought^ 
are the sum of the means of intellectual education. 

It is of the greatest importance that the child be 
not led to thoughtless chattering or even to a desire of 
Schivanen- it, by the way he is taught to talk. He 
gesang, § 54. must learn never to speak without due re- 
flection and consideration; in this way exercise in 
speaking is made inseparable from exercise in think- 
ing and reflecting. 

Now it is an undeniable fact, that the child brought 
up according to the method of the elementary educa- 
Ibid., t^on does not indulge in thoughtless chatter; 

§ 59. he does not talk until he knows what he 

has to say, and then he only talks of what he has in 
some manner or another perceived by his senses. 

It is wrong to make children read before they know 
how to talk. People want to make them talk by the 
help of books ; they tear them away by force, they use 
artifice to get them away from sense-perception, this 
natural basis of language, and make, in the most un- 
natural manner possible, dead letters the beginning of 
knowledge of things. . . . The child must be able 
to speak correctly and precisely about many things, 
long before he is ripe to reasonably read any book 
whatsoever. 

Relations of Language to Sense-jyerception and 
Thought — The faculty of sense-perception can be only 
Ibid f^^l^y developed by the practice of sense- 

§§ 61, 62, 91, perception, and has only attained the per- 
'^^^' fection of development when the individual 

can utilise, freely and surely, with full and clear con- 
sciousness, the j)erceptive impressions of his surround- 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 249 

ings as the sure foundations of his thought smd judgment 
on these surroundings. But this perfection can only 
be attained on condition that there be no gap in the 
continuity between the faculty of sense-perception and 
the faculty of judgment ; i.e. when the pupil has been 
made capable of expressing in language his perceptive 
impressions of surrounding objects with as much 
clearness and precision as he has realised them by his 
senses. Until the pupil has reached this stage in the 
mastery of language, there is a gap of continuity be- 
tween the development of his faculty of sense-perception 
and that of his faculty of thought, which cannot be 
otherwise filled than by a sufficiently developed /acz^% 
of language. 

Such is the essence of the task of the teaching of 
language, if it is conceived in a psychological manner, 
and based on true psychological principles. 

Study of Foreign Languages — The natural course 
of the study of foreign languages must be 
in perfect harmony with that of the study '' 

of the mother tongue. 

Hoiv the Child learns his Mother Tongue — The ab- 
solute point of starting for a child in learning its 
mother tongue is the impression of objects on his 
senses, the names of which have been made familiar 
to his ear and mouth. To this perception of the 
objects, and pronouncing of their names, is slowly 
but surely added the recognition and utterance of the 
names of the inherent qualities of the objects, and 
also of the impressions they make ; in other words, of 
the adjectives and verbs which are appropriate to the 
names of the objects. The progress of this learning 



250 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

to speak from the names of the objects (nouns), to 
the words which express their qualities (adjectives), 
and from those which express the impressions made 
by them (verbs), is by no means a sequence in time. 
The average child at home does not hear the objects 
named, adjectives to correspond added, and finally 
verbs, all in sequence of time, or even in any order 
whatsoever. He learns them all in intimate connec- 
tion in phrases, which give him first a glimmer of 
understanding, and then a comprehension which be- 
comes clearer and clearer, of the meaning of single 
words, and the nature of their connection, in all he 
hears and speaks. The advantage of this in the 
development of the power of language is obvious. 
Every single word in a sentence helps to explain the 
others, by reason of the connection of the conceptions 
expressed. That is why a sentence is generally more 
easily retained by the memory than a single, isolated 
word, which has no natural connection with any 
others. The sense of a word in every sentence ac- 
quires by its connection with the other words in the 
sentence, a definite, although a one-sided and limited, 
foundation to its general meaning. 

By the elementary method, the child not only 
acquires a solid, even if yet not quite clear, conscious- 
ness of every part of speech, but also practises, and 
makes himself perfectly familiar with, every form of 
the declensions of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns, 
and of the conjugations of verbs, i.e. of the modifi- 
cations of the declinable parts of speech. As to the 
invariable parts of speech, adverbs, prepositions, con- 
junctions, and exclamations, their use may also be 
taught by psychologically arranged series of examples. 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 251 

and facilitated to a degree which ^N^ature unaided could 
not attain. All the time that the child is being put 
through these exercises, he does not hear a word about 
grammar or syntax. By this means the child comes 
to possess, as an imperishable treasure, the whole ex- 
tent of all the expressions it needs to clothe its sense- 
perceptions in language, and is able to express himself 
in his mother tongue on a great many perceptions, 
with the greatest precision and fluency, without there 
being any necessity, all the time that he is learning 
to speak, of his learning any of the principles or rules 
of language, or of committing a single word to memory. 
However, the principle that every process in teach- 
ing a new language must be perfectly similar, and es- 
sentially the same, as those employed in teaching a 
child his mother tongue, — this xDrinciple, I say, has been 
lost sight of at the present time, chiefly owing to the 
refinement of the artificial means by which the first 
steps in learning a new language are made confused 
and difficult. And yet it is deeply engraved in ^he 
hon sens of human nature. Experience has proved, 
beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the more natu- 
ral persons, persons not spoilt by artificial training, 
devote themselves to teaching children a new language, 
the greater is the success which crowns their efforts. 
And Pestalozzi quotes in support of this assertion the 
foreign maids engaged to teach their language to chil- 
dren, who succeed just because they follow the natural 
method. He also mentions the case of foreigners who 
come to a country without knowing the language, and 
are obliged to learn the language by the natural method ; 
and reminds us of the proverb. Necessity is the best 
master. 



252 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 



B. Form and Number 

Pestalozzi's somewhat confused treatment of form 

Txr. ^ , ^iid number has no other interest than that 

Hire Kinder o^ the means of application which resulted 

lehrt, VIII, from it. These are summed up in what he 

calls The ABC of Sense-perception. 

Number is, in Pestalozzi's eyes, the greatest of the 
elements of our knowledge; for the following rea- 
sons : — 

Unlike sound and form, arithmetic is the only means 
of instruction which has no subordinate means con- 
nected with it, because it is the direct result of the 
elementary faculty by which we bring clearly to our 
consciousness the relation of more and less in all sense- 
perceptions. 

Sound and form often contain the germ of error, 
number never ; number alone leads to infallible results ; 
and if geometry makes the same claim, it has only 
infallible results through the aid of and by its combi- 
nation w^ith arithmetic. 

It is the means of elementary instruction which 
most surely attains its end, and for this reason it is the 
most important. That is why Pestalozzi devoted most 
attention to it. 

Before expounding his theory on the use he makes 
of sense-perception in the study of the relations of 
number, he demonstrates the futility of knowledge 
gained by the mere use of the memory {e.g. 3 + 4 = 7. 
If we only commit to memory the fact that three and 
four make seven, the inner truth of this seven is not 
in us). Similarly for all other categories of know- 
ledge. 



THE METHOD Of SENSE-PERCEPTION 253 

Pestalozzi begins his teaching of arithmetic by giv- 
ing the children the conception of the numbers from 
one to ten, by the help of actual objects, or lines and 
dots on tables. Not until they have been well exer- 
cised in the counting of these objects (fingers, peas, 
pebbles, etc.), does he proceed to figures, the signs of 
the abbreviations of numbers, and these figures the 
children now find quite easy. He sees in this method 
of proceeding two advantages, (1) arithmetic becomes 
the basis of distinct conceptions, (2) it is extremely 
facilitated to the child, because it is based on sense- 
perception. If arithmetic seems difficult to them at 
the beginning, it is only because this psychologically 
necessary treatment of arithmetic is not applied in its 
full extent. 

In order now to give the child clear ideas based on 
sense-perception with regard to measure, it was neces- 
sary to find a figure capable of being divided into an 
infinite number of parts, similar to the whole and to 
one another, a figure by which fractions gained by di- 
vision may be brought to the child's perception in such 
a manner that every relation of a fraction to the whole 
may stand as clear and distinct before the child's eyes, 
as the number one is in the child's eyes distinctly con- 
tained three times in the number three. 

The only figure which fulfils these conditions is the 
square, the fractions of which are as easy to under- 
stand as the whole. 

Thus Pestalozzi came to set up the A B C of sense- 
perception, of which the basis is the square, and which 
thus becomes the A B C of arithmetic ; and realises 
thereby the harmony of the elementary means of form 
and number, for the figures of geometry become the 



254 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

first fundamental elements in the relations of numbers, 
and conversely, the fundamental elements of the rela- 
tions of numbers become the first elements of the 
figures of geometry. 

The AB C of sense-perception will then comprise two 
parts : — 

1. The AB C of sense-perceptio7i of the relations of 
measure. 

2. The AB C of smise-perception of the relations of 
number.^ 

The first of these A B C's has as its fundamental 
principle the square, first as the whole, then divided 
into 2, 3 ••• 10 parts. All these squares are arranged 
on a table similar to the table of Pythagoras. (Cf. the 
table at the end of the volume.) 

The AB C of the relatioyis of member has likewise a 
table as basis. On it lines are drawn to represent 
series of unities by 1, 2, 3 ••• 10, and repeated ten 
times. (Cf. the table at the end of the volume.) 

The mere looking at the table suffices to give the 
child the immediate perception of the most varied 
measures, and enables him to solve complicated prob- 
lems on fractions. 

Drawing — The teaching of drawing, not being pos- 
Wie Gertrud sible without the perception of proportion, 
f^!'^/^^]^^^^ must necessarily be preceded by prelimi- 
§ 80. nary exercises. 

Important Result of this Method — The first result 
of this method is that children learn to express them- 

^ AB C der Anschauung oder Anschauungslehre der Massver- 
hdltnisse — Anschauungslehre der Zahlverhaltnisse, 2 Bde., Ziirich 
und Tubingen, 1803. 



THE METHOD OF SENSE-PERCEPTION 255 

selves with precision, both orally and in writing, on 
all possible objects with which they are acquainted, 
on condition, of course, that the exercise of Schwanen- 
writing be added to the others. Finally, 9esang, § 70. 
Pestalozzi declares that by using the method three 
or four years are saved. And yet, at the end of his 
life, he confessed his mistake in wanting to use the 
square as a Deus ex machind, and in taking inanimate 
objects as the basis of these exercises.^ 

Pestalozzi has such a firm belief in the efficacy of 
these processes that he repeats what he had already 
said in the preface to the Book for Mothers. Friends 
and enemies of the method, try it with this model, 
and adopt or reject it according as it gives results or 
not. 

1 It will be remembered that Herbart applied Pestalozzi's idea, 
only substituting the triangle for the square. 



CHAPTER VI 

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 

Definition of Religion. — The divine nature of man. — Chris- 
tianity and elementary education. — The first moral and re- 
ligious education of the child. — First period. — Second 
period. — Third period. — Birth of the child to moral life. — 
On the idea of God : The foundation of morality is faith and 
not ideas. — Religious instructions. — Part played by the 
mother. — Part played by the father. — Conformity of ele- 
mentary education to Christianity. 

Definition of Religion — Religion is nothing else 
L'p Jardu ^^^^ ^^^^ endeavour of the spirit to keep 
Gertrud, flesh, and blood in order by attachment to 
III, § 85. ^YiQ Creator of our being.^ 

The Divine Nature of Man — The nature of man is 
of God, it is a godlike nature. That is why the inter- 
j^QQ vention of the world and its passions does 

der Elem., not educate man's innocence harmoniously 
^^^' with the high and holy essence of his na- 

ture. It does not educate him elementarily, it does 

1 For Pestalozzi's religious and social opinions, see his curious 
book entitled Meine Nachforschungen iiber den Gang der NaUir 
in der Entwickelungen des Menschengeschlectes, 1797, re-edited in 
1886 by Mr. O. Hunziker, who has added to it a very interesting 
essay. We have not considered it necessary to give extracts from 
it in a purely pedagogical work. 

256 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 257 

not even educate him humanly. The human element 
in our nature is only truly developed by the godlike 
element in it. 

Christianity and Elementary Education — The most 
important event in the course of the moral 
development of the human race is Chris- 47-^0'. 
tianity. 

If we examine Christianity from the point of view 
of the idea of elementary education, we find in it, as 
the divine means of educating the human race to 
morality, all that was claimed to be the contents and 
the task of that idea, expounded with the most trans- 
parent lucidity and apparelled in celestial light, for 
it is the divine means of educating the human race 'to 
morality. And we can regard the demands and prin- 
ciples of elementary education as just so many de- 
mands and principles of Christianity, only in the 
latter they appear much more sublime than we can 
represent them. The Founder of Christianity invari- 
ably compares the foundation of his kingdom to the 
course of organic development followed by Nature. 
In assuming freedom of will in every individual, he 
also assumed in him the very essence of morality. 
He has besides actually put freedom of will, from the 
point of view of the intellect, in the truth which 
emanates from God, and of which God is the arche- 
type ; from the point of view of sentiment, in the love 
which also emanates from God, and of which God is 
the archetype; from the physical point of view, in 
the putting truth and love into action, which action 
also is of God, and Gcd is the archetype thereof. 
He presents the harmony and unity of this truth, this 
love, and this action in human morality as the highest 



258 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

aim of man, as his true essence, as perfection. We 
ought to be perfect, as our Father which is in heaven. 

The road to this perfection is through obedience in 
absolute submission to the will of Grod, the practice of 
virtue, self-denial, annihilation of the personality. 
But this self-denial, this annihilation of the personal- 
ity, is nothing else than the life of the godlike idea 
in us, the moral, the eternal life. 

Thus Jesus founded the work of morality on the 
divine dignity of the human nature in the child. 

Are the means we have already pointed out for in- 
Idee der tellectual elementary education in harmony 
Elem., §§56, with the recognised general basis of all ele- 
mentary education, i.e. with Christianity ? 

Certainly ; for elementary education^ like Christianity 
itself, is not the privilege of a few fortunate persons 
and cannot be taken away from the poor and those of 
low degree. Nothing can hinder them from attaining 
the highest degree of development of those faculties 
and talents which their Heavenly Father has given 
them. 

Whatever may be the gifts of the Creator, the good 
man feels that they are always worthy of his atten- 
tion and of his cultivation. Wherever he may find 
them he recognises them as a kind of higher divine 
property. Yes ! says the low and selfish man, pro- 
perty must be esteemed, protected, and cultivated, in 
whosesoever hands it may be, otherwise the land 
would go to rack and ruin. Poor man, you are cer- 
tainly right; but God's higher gifts are the higher 
property of man, and man must esteem, protect, and 
cultivate them, in whosesoever hands they may be, 
otherwise humanity will go to rack and ruin. 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 259 

Human nature is of God, it is a godlike nature. 
The human element in our nature can there- 
fore only be truly developed by the godlike 
element which is contained in it. The world and its 
lusts cannot develop it humanly. 

As the elementary method recognises Christianity in 
its Founder as the absolute and perfect revelation of 
the moral nature of man, just so it recog- 
nises this same Christianity in its Founder '' 
as the absolute and perfect revelation of the religious 
nature of man, and therein the redemption and the 
Redeemer of the world. The part which religion plays 
as universal means of educating humanity is seen 
through him in the greatest clearness and might. 
Thereby Christianity is not only raised to the position 
of the unchanging and eternal touchstone of every 
religious appearance, but also in it are given the ele- 
ments and the course of all religious development and 
education. 

If we investigate these elements and this course of 
the religious development of Christianity, we find in 
it, with regard to religion in the abstract, i.e. from the 
objective point of view, as the absolute alpha and 
omega, God, i.e. the idea of the Godhead; with regard 
to religion in man, i.e. from the subjective point of 
view, the godlike, i.e. the spirit of God, the divine idea 
indwelling in man, through which alone he becomes 
an image of God and accessible to all religion. Finally, 
with regard to the point of view which is at the same 
time subjective and objective, Jesus Christ, as the 
Divinity appearing in the flesh and as the perfect 
divine man. 

TJie First Moral and Religious Education of the 



b\ 



260 PESTALOZZrS EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

Child — The moral education of the child begins at 
Idee der ^^^ birth with his first needs. It may be 
Elem.,^ divided into three periods. 
248-270. ^.^,^^ Period — The child feels a want; 

the mother has what he wants ; she gives him what he 
wants ; she is his world, he recognises it only through 
her, and it satisfies him only through her. He is hun- 
gry, she satisfies his hunger; he is now happy. The 
place where he is lying is not comfortable, she takes 
him on her arm ; he is now happy. The two things, 
to be happy and to be with his mother, are woven into 
one and the same idea with him. The expressions 
of happiness, the expressions of content, gradually 
develop in him ; he is not only content, he smiles ; 
he is pleased because he has been satisfied. He 
recognises the fountain of his content, he loves her, 
the signs of his joy and his love develop ; he throws 
his arms round his mother's neck and caresses her. 
These signs multiply, they become more definite; 
their essence is now transformed in his soul into last- 
ing consciousness, into lasting recognition. He now 
trusts his mother, is quiet even when she is not there, 
he knows she will come back ; he trusts in her order, 
he accustoms himself to her. His love expands in 
this cahn, in this satisfaction. The character of his 
love is altered, he wants now to make his love active ; 
he wants his mother to see it ; he wants her to see 
that he is happy, that she has made him happy ; he 
wants her to be happy because of his love, and this 
love of his gradually develops in him the noble sen- 
timent of gratitude. 

But the child^s moral nature at this period develops, 
not through insight, hut through enjoyment ; he is by no 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 261 

means in search of truth, but of satisfaction. The 
first result of his experience, of his development, as it 
is expressed in the liveliness of his whole being, is 
therefore by no means the clearness of an idea of 
something that he recognises, not even mere simple 
foundation that leads to it ; it is only developed love, 
developed trust ; it is only traces of gratitude for what 
he has received. 

Second Period — The child thus gradually ap- 
proaches his second period, the extension of his love 
and trust beyond his mother. But this extension again 
is only developed, at this period, through the mother 
herself. She leads him to all sorts of objects which 
she sees have attractions for him ; and when she leads 
him to a gaily coloured dress, or to a beautiful flower, 
to the bell that is ringing, or to a dog that is barking, 
etc. ; when she makes him smell a rose, or a violet, or 
lets him feel the warmth of the stove ; when she lets 
him taste the sweet pear and honey ; in short, whatever 
she may do to him and with him, she gives him words 
for all; she names to him the objects of his needs 
and of his surroundings, as they come in contact with 
his senses, as they attract, quicken,' and satisfy his 
mind. And she does not give him mere empty words, 
she gives him them according to the measure that the 
things she names to him are needful for him, make 
him happy, cause him pleasure, or prevent disagree- 
able sensations. Her teaching of language is ahuays 
connected with lively action, which again is in connection 
with the objects, the names of which she pronounces to the 
child; she holds his hand away from the flame, when 
she says, ^' Fire burns"; she pulls him energetically 
away from the river bank, when she says, " You could 



V 



262 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

fall in and he drowned.''^ Everything she says to the 
child is, in her mouth, teaching of truth for the child. 
She develops and strengthens the consciousness of 
the words by her loving action. 

From her the child learns to talk for the sake of the 
objects, and not to get to know things, in order to be 
able to talk about them. Speech is for him only ex- 
pression upon things he knows, and the thing never 
the mere appendix of the words which it has taught 
him. Therefore it follows, as a matter of course, the 
more perfectly a child thus brought up understands 
a thing, the more he talks about it ; and the less he 
understands, the less he talks. Therefore the develop- 
ment of his faculties and powers generally takes place 
in consequence of the truth of actual life. He does 
not strengthen his hand just to strengthen his hand, 
but exerts his strength in every case to satisfy the 
necessity of the special circumstance. He develops 
the skill and strength of his hand, because he uses it, 
and does not use it in order thereby to gain skill and 
strength. He does not walk in order to strengthen the 
muscles of his foot, but strengthens these muscles be- 
cause he walks, and he walks because he wants to and 
because he cannot help himself. 

If in the first period of the mother's influence, the 
development of the child's faculties has been furthered 
\;- merely by the simple satisfaction of his powers, her 
injluence awakens, in the second period, the consciousness 
of the truth of himself in the child, and the truth of his 
immediate surroundings, as well as the relation of the one 
to the other. He now becomes conscious of his senses, 
which grow more and more acute, of his power, which 
becomes stronger and stronger. He knows what he 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 263 

can do, and is dimly conscious of the next step, which 
is easy to be attained. He wants to be able to take 
that step, to do a little more than he now can ; he tries 
to do it. His appreciation of his own capability and 
of his surroundings grows daily; he feels daily less 
fear, and trusts his surroundings more and more ; but 
this progress is still only made at the mother's side, 
and in the security of her brooding protection. He 
has not the smallest confidence in himself, if he is not 
at her side ; he never feels so happy as in her room ; 
he is still completely satisfied with playing in her room, 
although this play in its limitedness only moderately 
delights his mind and body. He ventures, yet still 
very cautiously, outside the door, and creeps slowly 
away from her, often looking back as he goes, into the 
garden near, sits down on the grass, draws a deep 
breath in the wide expanse of Nature, picks flowers, 
or collects pebbles, snails, and flowers. But if he hears 
a loud noise, if he sees anybody strange in his neigh- 
bourhood, he creeps quietly and timidly back to the 
safe haven of his protecting mother. She and she 
alone is the point of starting of his confidence at this 
period. 

However, as soon as he becomes better acquainted 
with his surroundings, he begins to feel safer away 
from his mother. He gradually starts less at rustling 
leaves, or a passing stranger; he entices the dog or 
sheep he is familiar with to his side with a bit of his 
bread, even when his mother is not by ; soon he ven- 
tures to the end of the garden, looks through the hedge 
into the street, has now confidence in the hedge, as he 
had confidence in the' house door, and enjoys the sight 
of the passers-by, even if he never saw them before. 



264 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

The less he has seen of them, the more fixedly he 
looks at them ; he is now glad, if they stand still in 
front of him ; if he is safe behind the hedge, he looks 
calmly at the big horse, when it crops the grass close 
to him ; and if people close to him, but outside the 
hedge, talk in a loud tone of voice, he no longer runs 
away ; he looks at them more fixedly. His desire to 
see more people, more things, grows stronger and 
stronger; impelled by it, he ventures to creep under 
the garden gate into the street, to see and hear better 
what is happening outside. 

Third Period — Thus he passes gradually into the 
third stage of his childish development. He now feels 
the iyicreasiiig security which his growing knowledge and 
his growing powers give him, even away from his mother, 
and from the protection of her love. He has daily more 
confidence in himself, and he knows better every day 
what objects he can trust and what he cannot. He 
knows better every day how to help himself and pro- 
tect himself. And he must know ; the powers which 
develop in him contain, inherent, an incitement to try 
to put them into action. His power is unsatisfied if 
he has no occasion, no inducement, to use it. He feels 
that ; he must and will exert it, whenever he can. He 
wants to be able to do more. The living room becomes 
too narrow for him to gratify this want. Even his 
mother is no longer everything to him, she is no longer 
all his world. He now recognises a world beyond her. 
He is no longer happy to be always at her side. The 
idea " to be happy " and " to be by his mother " is no 
longer one and the same. He is happy away from her. 
He springs away from her to boys at play ; he does 
not notice if there are any among them he has not seen 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 265 

before ; he plays with them as if he knew them, he is 
happy among them ; he goes back to them on the mor- 
row, and the day after that to play with them; he 
enters into friendship with them, he brings them 
home, saying, Father a^id Mother ! look, I have got some 
friends. And they take him to their fathers, and their 
mothers, and say to them. He is our friend. The 
horizon of his life, the horizon of his experiences, is 
extended. 

Now his faculties develop by the side of his mates in 
the life of the ivorld, as they developed at his mother's 
side in the life of the house.' His mother taught him 
to walk, the boys teach him to run and jump and 
climb. His mother taught him to speak, the boys 
teach him to sing and whistle and shout. His 
mother made him take hold, fetch and carry what she 
or he needed ; the boys make him take hold, and carry, 
and catch, and throw things that he likes to carry and 
throw, also heavy things which make him put out his 
strength. He now becomes stronger and stronger, 
stronger in mind, as well as in body. He looks more 
boldly at the world around him ; his heart expands ; 
the world he loves, the world he has confidence in, now 
acts on the extension of his mental ability and of his 
physical powers. This becomes a greater and more 
general need in every respect. 

He feels this need, is impelled by it ; he gradually 
begins to long for all the knoivledge, poiver, and posses- 
sion of the world. It is now as if the spirit of his 
childish guidance, as if . all feeling of his childish 
feebleness, and the insecurity, fear, and doubt result- 
ing from it, had come to a standstill ; it is as if the 
bond which connected him and his mother, as a holy 



266 PESTALOZZrS EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

commencement of his whole development, were ready- 
to fall away ; as if he were now ready to enter the 
world, without protection and without guide. But 
can he? Can the shy, cautious walk of infancy, of 
his first development, cease so suddenly ? May the 
protecting and developing bond between him and his 
mother be torn asunder, before a new protecting and 
developing bond be tied between him and Nature ? Is 
the child to come to a standstill now in the centre of 
his pure, elevating essence and being? Ought his 
mother, may his mother, let him leave her without 
anxiety? Does he no longer need her, does he no 
longer need a guide to lead him in her spirit ? Must 
she now give free play to his awakening desire to 
snatch unhindered at all knowledge, power, and desire 
of the world, without any regard to the former spirit 
of her action ? 

Here Pestalozzi describes in touching terms the 
anguish of the mother, who naturally asks what is to 
become of her child. He, too, recognises that the 
child is in serious danger of losing the innocence and 
the purity which the protection of his mother pre- 
served in him ; for he is obviously only incited to the 
demands for knowledge, power, and will, which he makes, 
by his mere animal nature, and not humanly elevated to 
desire them. 

Finally he loses his innocence, and falls of his own 
free will into sin ; his animal instinct, stronger than 
his good feeling, leads him into evil. He has learnt 
to know what is wrong, and yet he does wrong. As he 
formerly had an instinctive fear of what was unknown 
and strange, and this fear was his salvation against 
the dangers which unknown things might cause him, 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 267 

SO he ought now to be afraid of what is wrong, and be 
saved by this fear from the evils which wrong-doing 
could cause him. And as in the dangers of his 
physical infancy he needed the belief in his mother's 
protection and love to save him, so now lie needs, in 
the dangers of his moral and intellectual infancy, a 
neio belief to save him from the evil, which he now has 
learnt to know, and to educate him in well-doing. He 
now needs more than ever the secured continuance 
of the loving, trusting, and elevating frame of mind 
in which the first germs of his education developed in 
such holy and awe-inspiring fashion. And the lack of 
the continuance of this frame of mind in the awaken- 
ing of his energies is incontestably the rock on which 
the child must strike, if there be no hand to protect and 
guide him in these first steps of his intellectual and 
moral development, just as he would have come to 
grief, in the first stage of his physical development, 
but for the guidance and protection of his mother. 

Birth of the Child to Moral Life. First Religious 
Education — The moral nature of the child is now at 
its birth. The moment is decisive for his whole life, 
and the danger great. 

How are the moral habits which his moral develop- 
ment demand to be given to the child in conformity 
with Nature? Nature demands at this stage from 
human care the continuance of what she has hitherto 
done by instinct ; she demands the humanly reasonable 
continuation of the loving, believing frame of mind, 
the truth and blessing of which the child has until 
now unconsciously enjoyed in innocence. The foun- 
dation of this condition, the belief in his mother, 
weakens and totters. Nature demands new means of 



268 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

belief. Now the child may not step forth from the 
stage of his sensual and instinctive, inherent belief in 
his mother, if he is not to run the risk of completely 
breaking the natural thread of his moral development, 
unless the first foundation of the belief in God has al- 
ready been deeply laid in his soul. 

This must be laid, however, at this stage by sensible 
means. But it is necessary that it should be laid. 
Nature demands that before the sensual incitement 
to belief in his mother is weakened in the child, the 
sensual incitement of belief in God must already be 
developed in him. In this sensible fusion of the ele- 
ments of the belief in God in the truth and power 
of the ripened belief in his mother, lies the only pos- 
sibility of the pure, continuous, natural continuation 
of the pure, childish frame of mind, from which 
human morality, holy and awe-inspiring, springs. In 
it lies the only possibility of the elevation of the 
material attachment to a moral and spiritual one; 
otherwise the holy bond which Nature has made be- 
tween the infancy and the growth of our humanity is 
broken, and the great work of Nature which, mighty 
in love, paved the child's road to the highest elevation 
of his soul by faith, is in vain. 

Tlie preservation of this great work of Nature in its 
purity and its might is the essential foundation of the 
idea of elementary education, and of its claims to being 
in conformity with Nature. It attains to this con- 
formity by confining art to the path of Nature. It 
will proceed then at this first stage of education by 
sensible means. 

That is why it is essential to the child's moral edu- 
cation that the sensible impression of his parents^ belief 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 269 

in God be interwoven with the first perceptions of all the 
actions of his x^arents. It is good for him to see them, 
daily pray at the appointed time, just as he sees them 
bring him his dinner and supper every day at the same 
time. It is good for him to recognise early their fear 
of God, their anxiety to do nothing against His will, 
just as he recognises their respect for strangers or 
superiors, and their anxiety to do nothing to displease 
them. It is good for him to hear them speak as much 
of Jesus Christ, his good life and his sublime death, 
as they do of the good life and pious death of their 
father. It is good for him often to see the picture of 
gentle Jesus, for his mother to show it him, as often 
as she shows him her father's picture, and thereby 
awaken his love ; it is good that the Lord's Day should 
seem to him even in his infancy a solemn day, conse- 
crated to God ; for church bells, the singing of hymns, 
Sunday quiet, to make a deep impression on the child's 
mind in his infancy, and thus sensibly create a deep 
reverence for God ; it is good for him not to take a 
spoon in his hand, not to begin to eat, until he has 
clasped his hands and asked a blessing ; not to go to 
bed without repeating his " Gentle Jesus, meek and 
mild" and not to get up in the morning without pray- 
ing God to bless father and mother. It is good for him 
to believe in eternity, before he knows what time 
means, and to fear at an early age eternal punishment, 
as he fears his mother's rod. Oh yes ! when her child 
is on the bank of a stream, and there is a dangerous 
plank from which he could fall and be drowned, she 
says, "Do not cross I" And if he, nevertheless, does cross 
it, and she sees him, she runs up to the plank, pale and 
trembling, pulls him off it, and says again, " Oh dear ! 



270 PESTALOZZrS EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

oh dear I do not go on that lolank, you might drown your- 
self! " and when lie comes in, she shows him the rod, 
saying, ^^ If you go hack, I shall whip youJ' If, in spite 
of that, he does go back to the plank, she whips him, 
and then he never goes there again, but he loves her as 
much as before. 

0^ the Idea of God — The Foundation of Morality 
is Faith and not Ideas — Pestalozzi refutes Eousseau's 
statement, that God ought not to be mentioned to chil- 
dren, until they can comjyrehend that there is a God, and 
that He exists. Are we then to say nothing to the child 
of his deceased grandfather, in whose house he lives, 
whose heir his father is, and whose footprints he sees 
wherever he looks ? Will his father and mother wait, 
before speaking to him of his grandfather, until he 
knows how human generations succeed one another, 
and until he understands how his father could not be 
there, if his grandfather had not existed before him ? 
How absurd ! And is the absurdity less in wanting 
not to speak of God to a child, until he is able to un- 
derstand by his intellect that there is a God, and that 
he would not exist if there were no God ? 

The elements of morality do not start from ideas, 
but from faith, and faith in its turn starts from facts 
as ideas ; thus moral elementary education has in this 
respect the same foundation as intellectual elementary 
education. 

It is through the mother that the child learns to 

know God, she shows Him to the child in 

ihre Kinder everything she teaches him. Gradually his 

lehrt, XIV, love of and gratitude to her raise him to 

5'- God. 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 271 

Religious Instruction 

Eeligious teaching, to be truly human, must be 
given in deeds, not words. Lienhard u. 

Pestalozzi regrets the mere verbal reli- Gertrud, 
gious teaching, which he ironically calls ^^^' ^ ^^' 
" lip-religion " ; he would have nothing learnt by heart, 
except, perhaps, a few chosen texts, but no theology. 

Religious teaching ought to be entirely restricted to 
such as is connected with the acts and circumstances 
of daily life, of professional duties, so that, when, 
speaking of God or of eternity to the children, the 
minister will seem to be speaking of their father, of 
their house, of their country, in a word, of things 
which have an interest for them in this world. 

The Bible does not demand a knowledge of reli- 
gion, but the practice of religion from men. Every 
attempt to explain religion only brings ma.^ iv, 
people farther away from their simplic- § 71. 
ity of spirit. It is not a question of exciting reli- 
gious enthusiasm by words, nor by any images 
whatsoever which claim to explain to them what is 
in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the 
water under the earth, but to awake a state of mind 
in harmony with the practice of religious duties. 

Temporal and earthly things have been since the 
creation of the world the truest, surest, and least 
deceptive foundation of true religion for the people. 
The briars and thorns which the Lord made to grow 
on earth are to-day, as they were six thousand years 
ago, what best taught men to know God ; that is why 
he must be especially educated for earthly things. 

But it is impossible to alter the routine of the 



272 PESTALOZZrS EDlTCATlOlTAL THEORY 

clergy, and give them firm, clear, and practical ideas 
on this point. Their position and their culture lead 
them too much to turn away their attention from the 
force which they ought to develop in the soul of the 
people for earthly things, if they are not to be neg- 
lected in the first needs of life, on the satisfaction of 
which everything else is based. 

Part played by the Mother — Just as the first pro- 
ceeding of the simple, intelligent mother is the type 
j^gg of the intellectual education, and that of 

der Elem., the pure, innocent, moral mother the type 
§§ 6-90. q£ ^Yyq moral education, so the first proceed- 
ing of the religious mother is the type of the religious 
education of the child. Her child is a holy gift, a 
gift of God. She starts from no conception, no proof, 
and no explanation when she leads him to God. She 
rather transfuses her sense, her feeling of God, her 
holy belief in Him, as her highest, her absolutely cer- 
tain, possession, directly into the child's soul as by a 
divine breath. 

The mother breathes religion into everything around 
her, she sees God in all. The glory and majesty of 
Nature, her beauty and order, her wondrous appear- 
ances, fill her soul with thoughts of God, and she 
speaks of Him to her child. Thus the child has a 
visionary gleam of Hiin, a dawning of a recognition 
of Him as the almighty and invisible Creator, as 
the kind, gentle Giver of all, as the inscrutable and 
unfathomable God. But the mother always remains 
the mediator between God and child, and in her 
and through her the invisible Father appears to the 
child in His most delectable and consoling form. 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 273 

Part played by the Father. Idea of God in the Child 
• — The father acts in the same spirit. And as the child 
loves his father and his mother, is grateful to them and 
trusts them, so he embraces and honours his Heav- 
enly Father and yields himself to His guidance. 
The mother does not anxiously trouble herself as to 
what a conception or what an image the child may 
make to himself of God, and she has no need to do so, 
for her child, led by her, advances continuously in the 
unity of his nature. Her guidance preserves him from 
inner contradiction, and thereby from the only rock 
which could make irreligious feeling surge up in him. 
Just because she shows him God in everything, he 
feels that he is one with everything, and therefore 
reassured about everything. God is present to him in 
everything. He walks before him and is good. He 
personifies God instinctively, inevitably, of necessity. 
And in the measure that his soul raises itself above 
visible Nature, his personified idea of God raises itself 
above all that is visible and transitory, to the concep- 
tion of an invisible and eternal Creator and Lord of 
Nature, of a Leader dwelling in inaccessible regions 
of light, of a Father of humanity from whose eyes 
nothing is hid, who may only be approached by what 
is holy. 

Elementary education bases religious instruction on 
the holy foundation of Christianity, and it bases it 
also on the immovable foundation of the proceedings 
of the mother. As it takes over the moral and intel- 
lectual development of the child, according to the 
views expounded in the Book for Mothers, as soon as 
he is stimulated and awakened by the mother to a 
consciousness of himself in all directions of his being, 



274 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY I 

and can say of himself I am, so it takes over his reli- ! 

gious development, according to the views laid down in | 

the same book, as soon as he is independently conscious ■ 

of the conception of God, and can frame the sublime I 

thought, God is. With this thought it leads him to j 

Nature and shows him God first in the wonders of i 

Nature, then in himself, and finally in history. ' 

But what do I say ? Elementary education does this ? , 

Oh, no ! it does not. It only desires, strives to do this, , 

demands that this should be done. It enunciates its ' 

principles and invites all those who feel they have ; 

power to put them into application to do so, and then : 
gratefully accepts this application at their hands. 

Conformity of Eleinentary Education to Christianity \ 

— As the method of the development of the human i 

Schwanen- faculties by elementary education is based ^ i 

gesang, on love and faith, it must necessarily lead | 

^ ^'^^' to Christian thought, sentiment, and action. | 

Of course religion of itself does not turn out a mer- | 

chant, a tradesman, a scholar, or an artist. But it per- h 

f ects what it cannot give ; it sanctifies what it does not i 
create; it blesses what it does not teach. It grounds, 
develops, and fortifies the frame of mind which elevates, 

sanctifies, purifies, and makes truly human in his in- ; 

ward nature the calling of the merchant, the trades- ! 

man, and every other calling. Eeligion makes us ; 

deeply conscious of the sensual, the animal part of ' 

our flesh and of our blood, which, corrupting and ex- : 
tinguishing, surrounds the divine spark which is the 

essence of religion, and elevates us to the serious, ' 
never ending battle against our fleshly nature. 

The quickening and development of man's intellec- : 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 275 

tual faculties alone is not sufficient for true moral edu- 
cation, for that is inseparable from the influence of 
the animal selfishness of our nature ; without the 
quickening of faculties which oppose with higher 
power the animal influence of our selfishness, it can- 
not lead to the development of the pure divine essence 
of our inner nature, without which no true, no real, 
morality is conceivable. 

This striving after perfection, which alone succeeds 
in weakening the seeds of discord in us in their growth, 
and finally in destroying them, can only be the result 
of an earnest search after divine help and divine grace. 
The sincerity of this search leads inevitably to devo- 
tion and to prayer ; but the sincerity of the devotion 
and the sincerity of the prayer is inconceivable with- 
out the sincerity of divine faith and of divine love. 
So intimately is the essence of the idea of elementary 
education connected with the spirit of Christianity, its 
divine belief and its divine love. 

All means of quickening the power common to all 
men which do not start from the spirit and the life of 
our inner divine being, but from the sfensual impulses 
of the flesh and blood of our animal selfishness, are 
not elementary. 

It is the complete harmony of elementary education 
with Christianity which also distinguishes it from the 
education of the age. 



n~^- 



BOOK III 

OTHER DOCTEINES 
CHAPTER I 

OTHER DOCTRINES 

Love in education. — Social polish in education. — On corporal 
punishment. — On the premature teaching of the sciences. 
— Educative value of mathematics compared to that of gram- 
mar and dead languages. — On the teaching of history. 

Love in Education — Love is only efficacious in the 
education of men if it is associated with fear, for men 
Lienhard u ^^^^ learn to root out briars and thorns, and 
Gertrud, they never do this of themselves, but only 
III. § 70. when they are compelled and accustomed 
to do so. Any one who wishes to do anything with 
men, or make anything of them, must subdue their 
wickedness, follow up their depravity, and cause the 
beads of perspiration of terror to start from their brow 
when they are doing wrong. 

Social Polish in Education — Pestalozzi's establish- 
j^gg ment does not give this external polish, 

der Elem., to gain which contact with the world is 
§§212,213. necessary. 

Every establishment which gives social polish at 
270 



OTHER DOCTRINES 27? 

the expense of the thoroughness of knoivledge and of 
the individuality of the character is essentially bad. 

Besides, Pestalozzi does not believe that good social 
manners are so essential to success. 

On Corporal Punishment — We are certainly wrong 
in wanting to combat the allurement to sensual de- 
sires by, or to expect everything from, mere words, and 

to believe it possible to guide the child's 

.„ , f . „ . , 76id.,§267. 

Will at our pleasure, m all circumstances, 

by mere verbal remonstrances, without corporal pun- 
ishment. We imagine that our humanity is raised 
to such a delicacy that it no longer permits us in' any 
case to think of the coarse and repugnant means of 
blows ; but it is not the delicacy of our humane senti- 
ments, it is our weakness, which guides us. We have 
no confidence in ourselves, we have no confidence in 
our love. That is why we fear that the child will not 
have confidence in it either, and we believe that he 
will not see into our hearts, when we strike him. 
We do not know either the results of strength which 
chastises in love, nor those of weakness which shrinks 
from chastisement. 

On the Premature Teaching of the Sciences — In all 
subjects of instruction (history, geography, and others), 
which are not purely elementary, it is im- 
portant to distinguish between a real, and „. 2'>7-'>3i 
a merely verbal, knowledge of them. It 
is, therefore, important to distinguish between the real 
study of the subject and a preparatory instruction, 
given through seyise-perception and exercises of memory. 

There is, then, great danger in leading children, at 



1 

i 

278 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY \ 

too early an age, into the domain of the sciences, or 
even into their outer courtyards, for the master may ! 
easily lose consciousness of his deviation from the | 
simple course of jSTature, and then all is lost. Now \ 
it is important that he should always be conscious of 
it, in order energetically to counteract its disastrous \ 
effects. I 

He need not, however, be afraid to deviate from the \ 
road on a special occasion, if he is sure of the strength ; 
of his general direction, which prevents any disastrous 
consequences. 

Educative Value of Mathematics Compared to that of 
Idee Grammar and Dead Languages — The road 

der Elem., to intellectual education through grammar I 
§§ 199, 200. ^^^ dead languages is really a roundabout j 
road, which may certainly lead the lucky man who I 
does not lose his way to the goal, but the road through \ 
the development of the mathematical faculty is the 
real highway, on which every one who is a good 
walker, and uses his legs, must reach the goal. j 

The elementary exercises in mathematics quicken \ 
the mind and awake active interest, which is the basis ■ 
of all true development of our powers, in teii children, ; 
where exercises in grammar and dead languages would 
only awake it in one. 

That is why Pestalozzi chose this road, and made : 
mathematical exercises the foundation of the teaching 
in his school. 

On the Teaching of History — It is not wise to teach 1 
Idee der yo^^^g children the facts of history with | 
ii7em.,§ 228. their causes and effects, and with apprecia- | 



OTHER DOCTRINES 279 

tion of their value or non-vahie. One accustoms them 
in this way to judge historical events and men's acts 
at an age when they are still incapable of forming an 
accurate opinion on them, and, what is Avorse, one gives 
them knowledge, at this age of innocence, of the wicked- 
ness and violence of the world. It is unquestionable 
that the natural course of the moral and intellectual 
education is thereby retarded. 



CHAPTER II 

PESTALOZZI ON HIS OWN WORK 

Pestalozzi's application of the method. — Character and advan- 
tages of the elementary method. — Reply to some criticisms. 
— Pestalozzi's belief in his work. 

Pestalozzi^s Application of the Method — Pestalozzi's 
account of his experiments in teaching his little boy, 
TageUdtter, preserved in the diary he kept at the 
1774. beginning of 1774, is as follows : — 

Feb. 1st. I taught him by the help of figures and 
objects the meaning of the words without, within, above, 
below, between, beside. I showed him snow turning 
to water in the room. . . . 

Feb. 2nd. I tried to make him understand by the 
knowledge of the true significance of the first numbers, 
the exact meaning of the words which he could say by 
heart without knowing their true meaning. With this 
example, the most incapable of men would have been 
struck at seeing what an obstacle it is to the know- 
ledge of truth, to know words with which one does not 
associate exact notions of things. The habit of not 
conceiving any difference in the mind between the 
names of numbers had already been acquired, and 
prevented all attention. 7, 8, 9, 5, 17 were for him 
exactly the same thing. . . . Why did I commit the 
folly of precipitately teaching him words so impor- 
tant for the knowledge of truth, without taking care 

280 



PESTALOZZI ON HIS OWN WORK 281 

to make the notions which they represent precise and 
distinct from the first number I taught him ? How- 
natural it would have been not to make him say three 
until he had learnt to know two exactly in all objects ! 
and how far I have strayed from the path of Nature ! ^ 

Character and Advantages of the Elementary Method 
— The elementary method does not tire the children, 
for part of the instruction flows naturally ^, , 
from the one before, and each result is the Elem., § 196. 
natural result of the one before.^ 

It does not exclude any other method of education. 
It would fiot be what it is, if it did not 
absorb into itself all that is true, and all 
that is good in all the others, in whatever form it may 
appear. 

The child educated by Pestalozzi's method Schwanen- 
is capable of teaching others. 

Elementary education interests children in handi- 
craft, which the education of the time ^-^^^ r ^21. 
does not. 

Elementary education may be compared to an oak, 
the roots of which not only guarantee it a flourishing 
growth, but preserve it from outward causes jdee der 
of destruction. ^/em.,§209. 

Elementary education must, and will, keep percep- 
tion and thought, action and speech, of the /^^^.^ § 221. 
child in harmony. 

1 Morf , I, p. 127. 

2 Pestalozzi recoornises that this ideal has not yet been realised 
in his school, and takes pains to point out that the idea in general 
must not be confounded with the necessarily imperfect application 
he has made of it. 



282 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

Wie Gertrud ... — Pestalozzi himself relates that 
Glayre, a member of the Executive Directory, one day 
made the following remark : Vous voulez mecaniser 
Veducation. And he adds : " He hit the nail on the 
head, and decidedly put the words in my mouth which 
described the essence of my aim and all my means." 

Reply to Some Criticisms — " The elementary educa- 
tion," people say, " is not adapted to the needs of the 
people ; it is too obscure and too mechanical." 

Pestalozzi's answer to this objection is as follows: 
If it seems to the ones too bright a light for the lower 
Idee der classes, on the other hand, it seems to 
Elem.,^vio. others not bright enough; accustomed to 
artificial illumination and dark lanterns, they find 
mere daylight insufficient. It is extraordinary that 
men who make no objection when the bulk of the 
children in their country are subjected from morning 
to night to the most miserable school mechanism, find 
the elementary method too mechanical, too wearisome, 
and too lengthy for country children to devote a few 
years to it. On the other hand, they find no objection 
to these same country children being compelled to 
spend all the years of their youth at schools in which 
they learn neither to think, nor to speak, nor to ob- 
serve, nor to work, but where they are on the contrary 
unnaturally kept back. 

Pestalozzi^ s Belief in his Work — We have had 
pride cast in our teeth, says Pestalozzi, and have 
Ibid., §§ been accused of attaching a greater value 
162-171. to the idea of elementary education than 

it actually possesses. It is true that we attach a very 
great value to this idea, and many others base, as we 



PESTALOZZI ON HIS OWN WORK 283 

do, great hopes for the welfare of the human race on 
it. Many of these have actually maintained that the 
idea of elementary education gave promise of elevating 
its pupils, both morally and intellectually, and con- 
sequently would result in elevating a great number of 
men, and even in a regeneration of the human race. 

Pestalozzi thinks that this idea is calculated to 
cause education to be raised to the rank of a science, 
which must undoubtedly tend to develop the innate 
moral, intellectual, and artistic faculties of the pupil 
in a manner which would bring them into harmony 
with one another and at the same time satisfy the 
needs of his nature; and thereby generally promote 
and secure the moral, intellectual, and artistic eleva- 
tion of the human race. 

This, however, does not imply that the creative 
work of elemeyitary education is really established, 
either practically or theoretically. Pestalozzi does 
not even maintain that he will be able to establish it 
in his life, in a condition even approaching to perfec- 
tion. He is only glad to have succeeded in shedding 
some light on this aim, and at having persuaded many 
noble minds to strive to realise it. Otherwise he is 
not of a visionary nature, and has no desire to make 
others so. 

And if it were true that some of his hopes were 
exaggerated, and that here or there an error had crept 
in, could it be otherwise ? Pestalozzi thinks not, and, 
in his consciousness of the earnest nature of his 
efforts after something better, would have nothing to 
say on this topic but, " Let others do better what we 
do badly ! let others shame us by higher views, by 
nobler deeds, by a more energetic intervention in the 



284 PESTALOZZrS EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

actual life of the world ; let every one of our pre- 
sumptuous claims be rejected ; let others divert the 
attention of governments and of nations from us to 
themselves, by more evident presentation of the 
truth, by attempts which succeed -better, and by 
results happier than ours. Let a better man divert it 
to something better, a nobler man to something more 
noble. . . . We ask for nothing more ; it is bliss to 
disappear ; to live at peace and to die unnoticed, is 
bliss indeed. I have not had the one, may I have 
the other ? " 

And yet had his work merited that ? Has it been 
worth nothing at all, had no result ? He appeals to 
his country to decide. 

And even if he have exaggerated its extent and 
conceived too exuberant a joy and too high-flown 
hopes, is that a reason to mock at him ? 

No one has had more need to be patient and humble 
than he, for without patience and without humility 
his work would have long ceased to exist and would 
not last another hour. 

Mut mid Demut (Courage and Humility) was his 
motto from the very beginning of his work. " What 
should I be proud of ? I did not choose my work ; 
it dropped into my hands before I knew what my 
appointed task was ; and when I knew, when I had 
recognised this work, as my task in life, I could not 
withdraw my hand; it was and is my duty. And 
what I do, I must do, even if much be done in the 
prospect of future oblivion." 

The perfect is formed in men's hands only through 
the imperfect. As regards our aim we are still at the 
mere rude commencement, and it is not wise to indulge 



PESTALOZZI ON HIS OWN WORK 285 

in many day-dreams of what it will be at the height 
of its perfection. 

Consider the plant how it grows, you cannot tell 
how it expands ; but you see its blossoming forth and 
you have a firm belief that it will come to maturity, 
although you are not sure of the warmth of the sun, 
the dew, the rain which you consider essential for the 
growth of the plant, even for the following day. Just 
so I see my work prosper in the blessing of its sur- 
roundings, near and remote, and these are just as little 
in my might ; but I nevertheless have a firm belief that 
it will come to maturity. This belief, as well as the con- 
fidence which I have in my happiness which depends on 
it, is at the same time combined with the deeply rooted 
consciousness of the lack of sufficient power for all that 
the really perfect application of this idea demands. 

May this belief remain -vVith me ! May it, under all 
circumstances, soothe and strengthen all who share my 
work. But let us not be dazzled by it, let us not con- 
sider the accidental element of our passing happiness 
as the glorious noontide of our work ! May we not 
be carried away at the sight of single successful parts 
of our attempt, to deceive ourselves an instant as to 
the backwardness of this work as a whole ! Truly 
that would be the greatest misfortune, the greatest 
obstacle which we could lay in the path of our aims 
and our hopes. While we rejoice at present good 
fortune, may we by no means deceive ourselves as to 
the extent of what remains to be done for the com- 
plete attainment of our aim ! 

But in spite of his sense of the imperfection of his 
work, he embodies his faith in its ultimate jcIqq der 
success in the words, " Seek and ye shall Elem,, § X87, 
find." 



Part III 
PESTALOZZI'S INFLUENCE 



CHAPTER I 

PESTALOZZI'S INFLUENCE IN GERMANY, ESPE- 
CIALLY IN PRUSSIA 

Interest taken by German governments in Pestalozzi's method. 
— Organisation of primary education prepared by Frederick 
II. — Popular education and tlie raising of Prussia. — Fichte's 
Discourses to the German Nation. — Action taken by Nicolo- 
vius and Silvern. — Prussian pupils sent to Pestalozzi's insti- 
tute. — Pestalozzi's influence on Herbart. 

It was in Germany that Pestalozzi's ideas had the 
most rapid and most wide influence, and the best 
application; one may even say that it was through 
Germany that it penetrated into other countries. It 
is therefore indispensable to know exactly what this 
influence was, and to it alone it seems to us necessary 
to devote a more particular attention. 

The numerous visitors who came from Germany to 
see Pestalozzi's institute were naturally the first to 
contribute to the spread of his ideas and the applica- 
tion of his method in their country. One among 
them, Gruner, whom we have mentioned in the fore- 
going pages, undertook in 1805 the management of a 
Pestalozzian school in Frankfort, where Froebel first 
taught,^ and retained it until 1810. From this time 

1 Vide H. Courthorpe Bowen, Froebel and Education through 
Self -activity. New York, 1897. 

289 



290 PESTALOZZI'S INFLUENCE 

Frankfort became one of the most important centres 
of the Pestalozzi movement. Nor were the German 
governments slow in taking an interest in the new 
method ; among others the Bavarian government sent 
a young master, named Mtiller, to Burgdorf in 1803, 
and he opened a Pestalozzian school at Mainz. But 
of all German states, it was Prussia that followed 
Pestalozzi's work with most interest, and Prussia was 
to derive the greatest profit from it, as it had derived 
the greatest profit from the philanthropinist move- 
ment. We shall therefore dwell at more length on the 
influence of Pestalozzi's doctrines in Prussia, which was 
enormous, and give the historical reasons for it. 

As in secondary education, the honour of having 
paved the way for the organisation of primary in- 
struction in Prussia is due to Frederick II and his 
minister Zedlitz. We have called attention to the 
services rendered by Rochow, the philanthropinist, to 
the cause of popular education, in the introduction to 
this volume. It is interesting to see with what inter- 
est, with what enthusiasm even, Zedlitz, struck by the 
justice of Rochow's ideas, followed and encouraged 
their application, in order to meet with the views of 
his master, who aimed at nothing less than to take 
away the direction of schools from the church. In a 
letter in which the minister congratulated Rochow on 
having written instructive books for country children, 
the following passage must be mentioned. "Permit 
me to consider you henceforth as a man who, in order 
to further the great views of the best of kings, is ca- 
pable of effectively helping me in the reform of the 
instruction of country children, a man who has suffi- 
cient patriotism to be willing to lend me his help." 



IN GERMANY, ESPECIALLY IN PRUSSIA 291 

He even went so far as to recognise the principle of 
free and of compulsory education in the following 
terms: "I think it is a very bad thing that the vil- 
lage inhabitant should be obliged to pay for the in- 
struction of his children, for the school fee, however 
low it may be fixed, is very often in bad times a rea- 
son to prevent the peasant from sending his children 
to school. Now, I should like every child over five 
years, of age to be compelled to go to school, and no 
child to be admitted to confirmation until he had ac- 
quired a certain specified amount of instruction."^ 
Zedlitz was as desirous as Rochow of giving the peas- 
ants an education more in conformity to their state of 
life, and condemned the methods of popular instruc- 
tion then in use. " As all instruction should tend, as 
you so justly remark, to educate the children of the 
peasants with a view to their future calling, and give 
their intelligence a culture in conformity with their 
state of life, it is very evident that instruction thus 
given must be infinitely more laborious than that 
given when the schoolmaster contents himself with 
making the children learn a page of Luther's cate- 
chism by heart." ^ Finally, two years later, on the 
subject of an inspection, he wrote again to Rochow, 
and speaking of the clergy, he says, " It is difficult to 
plough the land with such a team." ^ 

Unfortunately Frederick II had not time to finish 

1 Vide Pinloche, La Reforme de V4ducaiion en Allemagne, au 
18^ Steele, p. 424. 

2 Letter from Zedlitz to Rochow, of the 7th of January, 1773 
(Ibid.). 

8 Letter from Zedlitz to Rochow, of the 11th of April, 1775 
(Ibid., i>.51S). 



292 PESTALOZZI'S INFLUENCE 

his reform, and under the reactionary government 
of his successor, Frederick William II, there was 
naturally no question of it. It was not until 1798 
that Frederick William III, returning to the liberal 
traditions of the great king, devoted himself to the 
study of the important question of the organisation of 
popular instruction. "It is time," he wrote to his 
minister, von Massow, "to at last consider the ques- 
tion of giving a suitable education and instruction to 
the children of the middle and lower classes." 

We see that the ground was well prepared to receive 
the fruitful germ of Pestalozzi's ideas ; it was actually 
at this time that they penetrated into Prussia. As 
early as 1792, Eochow himself wrote to the author of 
Leonard and Gertrude in the following enthusiastic 
terms : " Pestalozzi ! Faust ! Wise friends of man ! 
Accept herewith the public expression of my gratitude 
for your last works. I also believe as you do, that 
humanity suffers from ills which one can cure. . . . " ^ 
We know that the public subscription for Pestalozzi's 
work had been opened in Germany in 1801 ; Gru- 
ner among others had warmly recommended it, basing 
his recommendation on the report of Ith, in the 
Neue Berlinische Mouatschrift in 1803.^ Finally, Her- 
bart had published, in 1802, his Pestalozzi's Idea of 
an ABC of Sense-perception.^ All this praise natu- 
rally attracted the king's attention. "Pestalozzi's 
method, "he wrote to Gedike on the 2od of April, 
1803, "whose praises are in every one's mouth just 

1 Vide Bruno Gebhardt, Die Einfahruny der Pestalozzischen 
Methode in Preussen. Berlin, 1896. 

2 Bd. 10, p. 273. 

8 Pestalozzi's Idee eines ABC der Anschauung, 1802, 



IN GERMANY, ESPECIALLY IN PRUSSIA 293 

now, has also attracted, my attention." And the king 
commissioned Gedike to go to Burgdorf to study 
the famous method on the spot, and draw up a 
report. No one could better acquit himself of this 
mission than the reorganiser of secondary education 
in Prussia.^ Unfortunately he died on the 2d of May, 
1803, before he had been able to fulfil the king's 
desire. Another Prussian envoy, chosen by Voss, 
the minister Jeziorowski, an inspector of training 
colleges for teachers, came to Burgdorf, where he 
remained from the end of July until the beginning 
of October, 1803. In spite of his favourable report, 
the king was of opinion that the introduction of 
the new method in primary schools would be pre- 
mature, for he feared " that the instruction thus given 
was too wide in extent," and in his eyes it sufficed 
that the children of the lower orders, who were above 
all destined to manual labour, should merely learn 
"besides the necessary moral and religious instruc- 
tion, reading, writing, and arithmetic, and to sing 
some well-chosen ancient hymns." ^ Consequently he 
only authorised the application of PeStalozzi's method, 
concurrently with that of the philanthropinist Olivier,^ 
for the best pupils of the training colleges. As the 

1 See the important work accomplished by this pedagogue in our 
book, La R^forme de V education en AUemagne au 18« siecle, pp. 521 
et seq. 

2 Cabinet order of the 31st of December, 1803. (Bruno Gebhardt, 
Die Einfiihrung, etc., p. 11.) 

3 Olivier, who was born in 1759 at La Sarra (French Switzer- 
land) and died in 1815, was the author of the method of reading 
which bears his name, and then made a great sensation. He had 
taught Frederick William IV, king of Prussia, to read, and had been 
Basedow's colleague at the Dessau Philanthropinum. (Pinloche, La 
Reforme, etc., p. 156.) 



294 PESTALOZZI'S INFLUENCE 

minister returned to the charge in a new report, drawn 
up on the 13th of June, 1804, the king finally granted 
the authorisation to apply the method in the primary 
schools, but not to make it obligatory, on the 19th of 
January following. 

This time opposition was forthcoming from the 
Higher Council of Public Education {OberschidkoUe- 
gium, created in 1787). Some members of this body 
relied chiefly on Soyaux's report to throw discredit 
on the ideas of the Swiss pedagogue. In order to put 
an end to these discussions, it was decided that it 
would be better to await the result of the experiment 
authorised for the schools of southern Prussia, which 
the state had taken over. During this time, Klewitz, 
who was later on Chancellor of the Exchequer, pub- 
lished in the Neue BerUnisclie Monatsclirift^ a very 
judicious article, which summed up the best-known 
criticisms on Pestalozzi's method, and was especially 
based on the reports or writings of Jeziorowski, Ith, 
Herbart, and Soyaux. In this article he tried to give 
an impartial account of this method, the weak yjoints 
of which had not escaped him. Finally, one of the 
visitors of the Burgdorf institute, Plamann, had ob- 
tained the authorisation to open a Pestalozzian school 
in Berlin in 1805, which flourished greatly until 1830. 

The events of 1806, which abruptly ended the reor- 
ganisation thus begun, were to show better than all 
discussions how urgent the necessity was, and hasten 
the fulfilment of the project. " Tlie state must regain 
by intellectual forces ichat it has lost in 'physicrd power, ^^ 
said the vanquished king at Jena. It was Fichte, the 
philosopher, the ardent apostle of independence, who 

1 Vol. II, p. IGl. 



IN GERMANY, ESPECIALLY IN PRUSSIA 295 

undertook to give effect to these memorable words in 
his Discourses to the German j^ation,^ in which he 
demonstrated that the safety of Germany henceforth 
lay in national education. Now the reform of second- 
ary education, thanks to the philanthropinist move- 
ment, was accomplished,- the religious neutrality of the 
school also demanded by Basedow was legally recog- 
nised, and the schools for all classes were declared 
state institutions by the Prussian code of 1803.^ The 
work of Frederick the Great, who had dreamed of 
establishing a national education, was then already 
largely realised; but it was not yet complete, for 
primary instruction still remained to be organised. It 
is on this point that Fichte dwelt with all his elo- 
quence. " They are going to give us a Constitution," 
he says, " to indicate to us our alliances and the use of 
our forces,'' etc. " They have thought of everything 
but education." And, asking on what foundations 
" the new education," i.e. national education, ought to 
be based, he answers : " On the method of instruction 
invented and proposed by Heinrich Pestalozzi, the 
application of which we have seen to be so success- 
ful." ^ Why ? Perhaps on account of the novelty 
of the processes of this method? Not at all. Be- 
cause " Pestalozzi- s essential aim has been to elevate 
the lower classes, and efface all differences between 
them and the educated class; because it is not only 
popular education that is thus realised, but national 

1 Reden an die deutsche Nation, 1808. 

2 See for the details of this reform : Pinloche, La Reforme, etc., 
pp. 50&-531. 

3 Das aUgemeine Landrecht fiir die p7'ei(ssische7i Staaten, 2 par 
Theil, lit. XII, §§ 1-11. This constitution is still in force at the 
present time. ^ Rede IX. 



296 PESTALOZZI'S INFLUENCE 

education; and because Pestalozzi's doctrine has 
enough power to help nations and the whole human 
race to rise out of the miserable state in which they 
were wallowing." ^ And he does not hesitate to put 
Pestalozzi beside Luther. 

These words should not be lost. From this time, 
the name of Pestalozzi was identified with the idea of 
the national regeneration, and his works were read 
more eagerly than ever. It is related that Queen 
Luise was so touched by the story of Leonard and 
Gertrude, that she wanted to go herself to Pestalozzi 
and thank him in the name of humanity.^ It was 
at this eminently favourable time that two of the 
most fervent of Pestalozzi's disciples, Nicolovius and 
Silvern, entered the ministry for home affairs to direct 
the department of public instruction, which was at- 
tached to it.^ From that time the Pestalozzi method 
met with no more opposition, and reigned supreme in 
Prussian schools. Nay more, the government sent, as 
we have seen, pupil-teachers to Pestalozzi, and deter- 
mined to found two training colleges. 

By a cabinet order of the 6th of January, 1809, 
Stein, the minister, thus enunciated the fundamental 
principles of the reorganisation of primary instruc- 
tion : — 

1. School education and instruction are the affair 
of the state. 

2. The aim of primary schools is not to impart 
knowledge, but to form the judgment, common sense, 
the moral and religious spirits. 

1 Rede IX. 2 Adami, Konigln Luise, p. 263. 

4 It was not until 1817 that a special ministry for public instruc- 
tion, health, and religion was founded. 



IN GERMANY, ESPECIALLY IN PRUSSIA 297 

3. As regards the teaching of religion peculiar to 
each confession, it will be reserved, if possible, for the 
ecclesiastic of the place. 

4. Schoolmasters must prepare themselves for their 
profession. 

5. Special attention must be paid to the exterior 
as well as the interior, to the cleanliness and sanitary- 
conditions of the schoolrooms, and to the regular at- 
tendance of the pupils. 

(Some regulations as to the inspection of schools 
follow.) 

It is important to remark that it was not the exter- 
nal aspect of the method which most attracted the 
reorganisers of the Prussian primary schools. In 
this respect the instructions given by Siivern to the 
young masters sent to Yverdon are most worthy of 
note. " It is not exactly the mechanical side of the 
method," said he, " that you are to learn there ; you 
can do that elsewhere, and it would not be worth 
while to go to such expense for that. Your chief 
aim will not be either to break the outer shell in order 
to taste the almond, i.e. to penetrate the spirit, with 
a mere view to cleverness in teaching. No ; but what 
I want you to do is to warm yourselves at the sacred 
fire which burns in the heart of this man so full of 
strength and love, whose work has remained far below 
what he originally desired, below the essential idea of 
his life, of which the method is only a feeble product. 
You must give yourselves completely up, without any 
preconceived ideas of your own, to the life and peda- 
gogical activity which are nowhere so busy as there, 
which daily produce new and interesting phenomena, 
and attract most important visitors ; you must let this 



298 PESTALOZZrS INFLUENCE 

splendid, vigorous Nature influence you during the 
happy time when you are still most sensible to its 
impressions. And under the common influence of 
this action of Nature and of the persons, teachers and 
taught, assembled in the hallowed circle of the insti- 
tute, every spark of the heart and of the mind still 
quiet within you ought to burst into flame, and this 
influence ought to surround you until it has pene- 
trated your inmost soul, and has brought you to find 
yourselves, and to recognise this truth, that man is 
nothing else but a simple nature which develops itself 
in every individual in the most varied fashion. . . . 
Once you have received this pedagogic consecration, 
teaching as mere teaching will disappear for you ; you 
will see it in the most intimate connection of its nec- 
essary components, of their reciprocal influence, and 
of the action of each particular object on the whole, 
which is man, and is only a ray of the primitive force 
of the world, which is the divinity. You will have 
reached perfection, when you have clearly seen that 
education is an art, and the most sublime and the 
most holy art of all, and in what connection it is with 
the great art of the education of nations, which is one 
and indivisible with it. . . . Do not forget that the 
elements in all sciences are far from being the easiest 
part of them, that profound knowledge of a subject is 
necessary to a thorough treatment of the same in the 
school. . . . The characteristic point of Pestalozzi's 
method is that it is as fruitful for a scientific and a 
technical education, as it is profitable for human cul- 
ture." 1 

The young masters sent to Yverdon were naturally 

1 Bruno Gebhardt, Die Einfuhrung, etc., pp. 33 et seq. 



IN GERMANY, ESPECIALLY IN PRUSSIA 299 

on their return the most active propagators of the 
Pestalozzian method in Prussia. Moreover, a central 
training college for teachers was founded by govern- 
ment at the orphanage in Konigsberg, and placed 
under the management of Zeller. But as Stivern 
desired, it was less the mechanical application than 
the spirit of the method which prevailed. A long 
experience was not necessary to cause the rejection 
of certain exercises, to which Pestalozzi evidently 
attached too much importance, e.g. those in geometry 
and arithmetic based on his diagrams. On the other 
hand, great pains were taken to retain the valuable 
part of Pestalozzi's idea, i.e., according to Zeller's own 
words, " to instruct the pupil in such a manner that 
he may learn to gradually develop, educate, and per- 
fect every object of knowledge and poiver, from the 
first elements, in conscious and independent activity, 
in accordance with its own nature.'' 

Finally, it was long not sufficiently recognised ' that 
one of the most active propagators of Pestalozzi's 
doctrines in Germany was Herbart himself. If we 
remember that this philosopher, attracted from the 
beginning by Pestalozzi's ideas on sense-perception, 
on which he immediately commented,- and on the 
natural method of teaching, which he later on scien- 
tifically expounded, was to create on this basis what 
has been called in Germany scientific pedagogy, what 

1 To Dr. Theodor Wiget is due the merit of having called atten- 
tion to this important fact in his valuable work, Pestalozzi und 
Herbart, Dresden, 1891-1892, which we regret to see does not ex- 
haust the subject, 

2 See his work, Pestalozzi's Idee eines ABC der Anschauung, 
Gottingen, 1802. 



300 PESTALOZZI'S INFLUENCE ] 

i 

we more correctly called the science of education, the | 

existence of which no one nowadays contests, we can- j 

not but recognise that that alone is a title to fame ! 

which should of itself suffice to immortalise the work ] 

and the name of Pestalozzi. 



CHAPTER II 

PESTALOZZI'S INFLUENCE IN OTHER COUNTRIES 

In other countries, the direct influence of Pestalozzi 
was limited to isolated instances. In France, the 
philosopher Maine de Biran, after Pestalozzi's fruit- 
less attempt to make his method known during his 
stay in Paris, founded, in 1808, a Pestalozzian school 
at Bergerac, his native town, where he was then 
deputy mayor (sous-prefet) , and placed it under the 
management of Barraud, who had been sent him by 
Pestalozzi. Although the school continued to exist 
until 1881, it may be said to have been nothing but 
an ordinary boarding school, and had no pedagogic 
influence.^ From 1809, Stapfer remarked on the fail- 
ure of Maine de Biran, in a letter to Pestalozzi, which 
concluded with these words, "So that I do not for 
the present see any possibility, not even the shadow 
of a probability, of acclimatising the method in 
France." 2 In Spain, Voitel of Soleure succeeded in 
founding, in 1805, a Pestalozzian school at Madrid, and 
a training college for teachers at Santander. In 1806 
a school called El Real Instituto Pestalozziano Militar 
was founded by a state decree at Madrid, with Voitel 
as head master and two teachers sent by Pestalozzi. 

1 See the history of this school in the Revue Pedagogique of the 
15th of April, 1893, in an article by W. Pauliet. 

2 Festalozzi Blatter, 1889, p. 31. 

301 



302 PESTALOZZI'S INFLUENCE 

Political events brought about the sux^pression of the 
Real Instituto in 1808, and under Napoleon's sway- 
there was naturally no longer any question of Pesta- 
lozzi's method. 

In Copenhagen a school was likewise opened on 
the return of the two teachers, Strom and Torlitz, who 
had been sent to Burgdorf by their government in 
1803. The experiment was considered unsatisfactory, 
and the teaching of too mechanical a nature, and the 
establishment was closed in 1806. 

Such, with one or two other isolated instances, were 
the chief attempts made in Europe to put Pestalozzi's 
ideas into application. All were unsuccessful, and we 
may therefore say that Germany was the first, and 
for long the only, nation which succeeded in extract- 
ing the good part of it and seizing its true spirit. It 
was only much later, and certainly owing to German 
example, that other countries, especially Prance, Eng- 
land, and the United States, were gradually able to 
profit by the good which the great pedagogue had 
desired to attain, without, however, succeeding in at- 
taining it himself. 



INDEX 



A B C of Sense-perception, 60, 252. 
Esthetic education, 173. 
Appeal to philanthropists, 20. 
Arithmetic, A B C of, 253. 
Artistic education, lTl-172. 

B 

Babeli, the faithful servant, 4. 

Basedow, xi. 

Battier, Felix, 29. 

Beyme, Von, 99. 

Bibliography, xv. 

Birrfeld, farm at, 13 ; a failure, 14, 16. 

Birthday celebration, 81. 

Bluntschli, 8 ; death of, 10, 12. 

Bodmer, 6, 10, 11 ; founder of Hel- 

vetian Society, 9. 
Book for Mothers, 60, 211, 235, 237. 
Books, the first, 215. 
Breitinger, 6. 

Burgdorf, schools at, 38-60. 
Buss, teacher of music, 49. 



Child, first education of, by its mother, 
161 ; birth of, to moral life, 267. 
{See also Moral Education.) 

Child of three, experiment on, 214. 

Children's mental powers, 47. 

Christianity and elementary educa- 
tion, 257. 

Christopher and Elsa, 26. 

Comenius, xi. 

Common sense, 86-87. 

ConsuUa at Paris, 59-60. 

Contrat Social, Eousseau's, 8. 



Corporal punishment, 45, 56, 277. 
Cotta, publisher, 103, 109. 



Discipline, 55. 
Doctrines, xiv. 
Dysli, Samuel, teacher, 38. 

E 

Education, elementary, 32, 34, 83, 90, 
109, 126, 134, 152-153 ; aim of, 164 ; 
definition of, 165; perfection in im- 
possible, 176; faith and love the 
basis of, 183 ; principles of, 216, 245, 
274, 281. 

Education necessary for society, 121 ; 
aim of, 125, 136 ; no general rules of, 
127, 135 ; definition and principle of, 
129 ; practical, 138 ; private and pub- 
lic, 146 ; defects of, 149 ; catechetical 
method, 154 ; Socratic method, 155. 

Education of the poor, xi, 18, 27, 
144. 

Ego, the, as the centre of education, 
211, 239. 

^mile, Rousseau's, xii, 8, 

Erinnerer, Der, 9. 

Esterhazy, Prince, 100. 



Faith, 183, 270. 

Fellenberg, 62, 65, 108-109, 116. 

Fichte, visit from, 28; Discourses to 

the German Nation, 29, 66, 295. 
Form, 229, 232, 237, 252. 
Francke, x. 
Frederick II, x, 290. 
Frederick William III, 292. 
Fussli, 18, 19. 



303 



304 



INDEX 



Games as methods, 131. 

Girard, Father, report of, on Yverdon, 

86-90. 
God, the idea of, 167, 270, 273. 
Grammar, 246. 

Grandfather, teacher at Hongg, 5. 
Greeks, culture and education of the, 

151-152. 
Gruner on "the moral reviews," 57- 

59 ; his school in Frankfort, 289, 292. 
GuUlaume, 90 n. 
Guimps, M. de, 76. 

H 

Helvetian Diet, aid from the, 52 ; grants 

withdrawn, 61 ; inspects Yverdon, 

85 ; vote of gratitude, 90. 
Helvetian Society, the, 9, 10. 
Hel'vetisehes Folkshlatt, 31. 
Herbart on Pestalozzi, 46-49, 292 ; an 

active Pestalozzian, 299. 
Hermit'' s Evening, A, 25. 
Hirzel's Peasant Philosopher, 11. 
History, teaching of, 278. 
Hofwyl, 62, 108. 
Home for poor children, 18-24. 
Home influence, 137. 
How Gertrude teaches her Children, 

51, 83, 125. 



Ignorance, causes of, 140. 
Illuminated, Order of the, 27. 
Illustrations to my ABC Book, 26. 
Intellectual education, 168 ; psycho- 
logical foundation of, 206. 
IseUu, 20, 24 ; death of, 29. 
Ith, Dean, 52, 292. 



Jeziorowski's reports, 293. 
Judgment, the, 170 ; founded on 

sense-perception, 200. 
JuUien's reports, 96, 104, 108-109. 



K 

Klewitz, 294. 

Knowledge, origins of, 198. 

Kriisi, 40, 41, 65, 91, 94, 103, 111, 113. 



Labour, industrial, 18-21, 82, 80, 123, 
131, 138-139, 145. 

Language as the basis of instruction, 
218, 229, 233 ; study of, 236-241 ; 
importance of, 242 ; development of, 
in child, 243, 249 ; starting-point 
and aim, 244; relations of, 248. 

Languages, study of, 169, 249. 

Lavater, 11, 13, 19. 

Legrand, support from, 31. 

Leonard and Gertrude, 25-27, 121, 
256, 296. 

Leopold, Emperor, 27. 

Life educates, 177. 

Louise, Queen, 66, 296. 

Love in education, 276. 



M 

Maine de Biran's school at Bergerac, 

301. 

Man, divine nature of, 256. 

Masters and pupils, 56. 

Mathematics, 278. 

Memorising, 46, 48. 

Method of sense-perception, 210 ; in 
application, 217, 234-251 ; general 
I'ules, 225; supplements even sci- 
ence, 227 ; elements of the, 229 ; re- 
sult, 254. 

Method, Pestalozzi's, an enigma, 73, 
87. 

Method, the elementary, 179, 250 ; aim 
and originality of, 186 ; positive, 188, 
191 ; universal, 192 ; relations of, 
193 ; imitates nature, 193 ; imitates 
the mother, 195 ; Pestalozzi's appH- 
cation of the, 280 ; character and 
advantages of the, 281. 

Mieg, 97. 

Military exercises, 80. 



INDEX 



305 



Models to follow, 128, 130. 

Moral education, 56-59, 68, 167, 260- 

270. 
Mother tongue, 249. 
Miillngen, 13. 
Muller, 10. 

Munchenbuchsee, institute at, 61-63. 
Muralt, Johann von, a colleague, 60, 63. 

N 

Naf, Elizabeth, the model for Gertrude, 
29 ; Mme. Kriisi, 77-78, 97, 115. 

Nageli's book of songs, 81. 

Neuhof, 15, 18-24, 29, 97. 

New Year's Day, 81. 

Nicolorius, 28, 66, 296. 

Niederer, Johann, joins institute, 60, 
64, 74; rivalry with Schmid, 83-85, 
93 ; reply to attack, 94, 96-98 ; leaves 
Yverdon, 103, 107. 

Number, 229, 237, 252. 



Perceptions, 202. {See Sense-percep- 
tion.) 

Pestalozzi, Heinrich, born, 3 ; child- 
hood, 4-6 ; at Ziirich schools and 
Carolinum, 6-7 ; Influenced by Emile 
and the Contrat Social, 8 ; joins the 
Helvetian Society, 9-10 ; studies 
agriculture, 11-13 ; marriage, 13 ; 
birth of a son, 14 ; his want of fore- 
sight, 16-17, 66, 97 ; home for poor 
children, 18-24 ; appeal to philan- 
thropists, 20-21; reports on Institute, 
23, 92 ; first writings, 25 ; joins the 
Illuminated, 27 ; made a citizen of 
France, 28 ; wish to be a school- 
master. 30 ; at Stanz, 32 ; his teach- 
ing, 33-^5, 38-41, 54, 69 ; Institute 
at Burgdorf, 51 ; aided by Helvetian 
government, 52; "moral reviews," 
55-59 ; member of Consulta, 59 ; 
stops teaching, 63 ; quarrels with 
Fellenberg, 62, 65, 109 ; literary work, 
68 ; home life, 79 ; influenced by 



Niederer, 83 ; sides with Schmid, 
92-93 ; disaster, 97 ; decorated by 
Emperor Alexander, 99 ; works pub- 
lished, 102 ; death of wife, 103 ; poem, 
106 ; subscriptions for, 109 ; death, 
116 ; epitaph, 117 ; his educational 
theory, 119 et seq. ; works, 120 ; 
essential aim, 142 ; reply to criticisms, 
282 ; belief in his work, 282 ; influence 
in Germany, 289 ; in other countries, 
301-302. 

Pestalozzi, Johann Baptist, 3. 

Physical education, 175. 

Progression, regularity of, 47. 

Prussia, educational movements in, 
290 ; reorganises primary instruc- 
tion, 296. 

PupU-teachers, 67, 88, 297. 

K 

Ramsauer, Johann, on Pestalozzi's 
methods, 42-45, 68, 94, 100, 103. 

Eaumer, Karl von, at Yverdon, 90-94. 

Religion, 256. 

Religious education, 259, 267, 271 ; by 
mother, 272 ; by father, 273. 

Rochow, X, 290, 292. 

Rousseau, xli, 8. 

Rudiments, perfection in, 33-34. 

Rulers, responsibility of, 133. 

S 
Schinz, 16, 19. 
Schmid, Joseph, 74, 84, 91-93 ; at Bre- 

genz, 95 ; return of, 98 ; influence of, 

102-105 ; Pestalozzi's tribute to, 116. 
Schools, evil influence of, 129. 
School, the, 147 ; and play, 157. 
Schroter to Pestalozzi, 66. 
Schulthess, Anna, 12 ; marriage, 13. 
Schulthess, Heinrich, 17. 
Schulthess, the banker, 12, 13, 14, 16. 
Sciences, premature teaching of the, 

277. 
Segesser, Luise, 95. 
Sense-perception, xi-xii, 18, 83 ; ABC 

of, 39, 72 ; definition of, 197 ; and 



306 



INDEX 



thought, 200 ; transformation of, 201 ; 
general processes, 204 ; man the 
centre of, 208 ; method of, 210. {See 
also Method of Sense-perception.) 

Singing, 49, 81. 

Social manners, 276. 

Society of the Friends of Education, 
50. 

Sound, 231, 234. 

Soyaux on Pestalozzi, 52-57, 294. 

Square, the, 253. 

Stanz, orphanage at, 31-36. 

Stapfer reforms the schools, 30, 37. 

Subscription, 109. 

Silvern, instructions of, 297. 

Swan's Dirge, 114, 281. 

Swiss Directory employed Pestalozzi 
at Stanz, 31-36 ; at Burgdorf, 38. 



Teaching of Arithmetic by Sense- 
perception, 60. 
Teaching, psychological course of, 



Text-books, 223-224. 
Tobler, 49, 63, 85. 
Toerlitz, on Pestalozzi, 82. 
Truttmann and Businger, reports of, 

35. 
Tschiffeli, 11, 13. 

V 

Verbal instruction, 155. 

Vocabulary, importance of, 217, 225, 

230. 
Vogel, 97. 
Vulliemin on Pestalozzi, 70-74. 



Yes or No, Opinions by a Free 

Man, 28. 
Yverdon, institute at, 61, 65-113; 

school Ufe at, 68-69, 71-72, 75-78; 

management, 88-90 ; deficit at, 97. 

Z 

Zedlitz, 290. 

Zinzendorf, Count von, 26. 

Ziirich Carolinum, idealism at, 7. 



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